Only Zanu PF and MDC-T will share the $100 million
allocated in the 2021 National Budget under the Political Parties Finance Act
as all other parties failed to get at least five percent of the constituency
votes in the 2018 election.
The $25 million budget of last year was quadrupled to $100
million in this year’s budget to help compensate for inflation. The constituent
parties that made up the MDC-Alliance are treated separately for the purposes
of sharing the money, which is why only the largest, the MDC-T, exceeded the
five percent threshold.
In an interview yesterday, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said he hoped that the money will be disbursed
early by Treasury to allow political parties to carry out their activities.
“The money will be shared by political parties that are in
Parliament that meet the legal requirements of the law. It is our hope that
Treasury disburses the money early so that the political parties concerned will
be able to carry out their duties. We will obviously engage Treasury with
regard to that issue,” said Minister Ziyambi.
He said only Zanu PF and MDC-T were entitled to get the
share of the money because they meet the legal threshold provided for under the
Political Parties Finance Act.
The Act provides that only a political party that garnered
at least five percent of total votes in a general election qualify for the
money.
This leaves People’s Democratic Party led by Tendai Biti
under the MDC-Alliance falling short of the threshold with its four legislators
in the National Assembly.
The four legislators from PDP include, Mr Biti (Harare
East), Willias Madzimure (Kambuzuma) Settlement Chikwinya (Mbizo) and Kucaca
Phulu (Nkulumane.)
Zanu PF got 145 seats of the 210 in the National Assembly
against MDC-Alliance’s 63.
The remaining two seats went to National Patriotic Front’s
Masango “Blackman” Masango, who is now late as well as Norton MP Mr Temba
Mliswa. The seats of the MDC-T were further whittled down after it recalled
about 21 MPs holding geographical constituencies which will further diminish
the money the opposition should proportionately get.
Government promulgated the Political Parties Finance Act
after it emerged that some opposition parties were getting funding from hostile
Western nations.
Under that law, it is criminal for political parties to
receive foreign funding. Political parties should get money from the Government
if they meet the legal threshold of votes in a general election which is at
least five percent of total votes cast.
They can also get funding from their members, selling party
cards and fundraising activities.
During the year, MDC-T led by the then acting president Dr
Thokozani Khupe recalled some of its legislators in terms of a constitutional
provision that allowed a political party to do so should it feel that the
legislator concerned no longer represents its interest in the august House.
At the heart of the dispute within the opposition is
whether the MPs and senators elected under the MDC-Alliance umbrella belong to
the party that nominated them on the MDC-Alliance list, or belong to the
MDC-Alliance which regards itself as a political party in its own right.
So far decisions in the High Court have ruled that the
MDC-A is an umbrella organisation. Herald
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