This comes in the wake of the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) recall of Members of Parliament barely two weeks after the opening of Parliament by President Mnangagwa.
CCC interim secretary general Mr recalled 15 National Assembly members and nine Senators as chaos continues to unfold in the beleaguered opposition party.
While there are contestations within the opposition following the latest wave of recalls, it appears for the past 10 years, the recalling of MPs and councillors has become the norm post-elections.
Following the 2013 elections, MDC-T recalled 21 MPs including Mr Tendai Biti after a group of legislators had called for leadership renewal within the party.
At the time the late Mr Morgan Tsvangirai was at the helm of the MDC-T.
In the post-2018 elections, the MDC Alliance was also rocked by another wave of recalls after Dr Thokozani Khupe assumed leadership of the opposition party before Mr Douglas Mwonzora took over its reins.
The main opposition now rebranded CCC led by Mr Nelson Chamisa is back to its default settings of recalling members claiming they no longer belong to the organisation.
Issues to do with the imposition of candidates and failure to have internal structures to address concerns are being attributed to divisions within the party.
Addressing the media in Harare yesterday, Mr Chamisa seemed to shift blame from his party, ordering elected CCC MPs and councillors not to perform their constitutional mandate.
In an interview yesterday, Minister Ziyambi said the recalls are a strain on the Treasury as the Government is forced to divert funds towards financing by-elections instead of forging ahead with development.
“The Constitution and the Electoral Act state that when a vacancy occurs within 90 days we must go for an election. And when we go for an election, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission must deploy people to do all the necessary preparations and this is an unnecessary expenditure that has to be borne by the taxpayers” he said.
“That money could have been used for development projects.”
Minister Ziyambi said out of the 15 legislators who have been recalled, 12 of them have constituencies, which effectively calls for by-elections in the affected areas.
“We could put this money to good use such as improving the road to Victoria Falls and paying our contractor. We now have to satisfy the constitutional requirements which require that we conduct by-elections within 90 days and mind you we are just coming from another election,” he said.
Minister Ziyambi said to address some of the pitfalls that the opposition has brought, the country should start a conversation on regulating political parties.
Political parties are not regulated in the country and they just need to notify the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission of their intention to contest.
“I think going forward we need to have a discussion, conversations in ensuring that political parties are registered. They deposit their constitution and show that they are organised. The situation that obtains now is that we have had political parties that would just sprout towards elections,” said Minister Ziyambi.
“You have a coalition of individuals with no structure that is recognised and soon after elections they start fighting. You can’t tell who is who, and perhaps what needs to be discussed is that let us have proper political party registration so that all those parties without structures will not be able to contest.”
Political analyst Mr Methuseli Moyo said while the recalls are costly to the economy, they are a testimony that the opposition has not taken notes from its past mistakes.
“The opposition does not seem to learn from history. Once more, they are at each other’s throats. Consequently, there might soon be by-elections, and this is an expense,” he said.
“From the opposition side, the by-elections may prove costly as some of the recalled MPs may lose the by-elections.”
Mr Moyo said Mr Chamisa’s decision directing elected CCC officials to stop executing their roles shows his selfish endeavours.
He said the opposition should engage its members as opposed to posturing and bickering.
“He must engage Tshabangu and others and rectify the issues that are the source of the conflict. The infighting in the CCC is of no governance matter, but structures in the party. Mr Chamisa must stop bullying fellow leaders and penalising the party,” said Mr Moyo.
Constitutional lawyer Professor Lovemore Madhuku said in his view, the Constitutional provision allowing political parties to recall members is what is flawed.
“The clause that parties can recall members must be removed from the Constitution. MPs are elected by the people and then recalled by the parties. So the problem is not within opposition parties, but the Constitution and that clause should be removed.” Herald
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