MDC factions must seek ZCTU mediation
SO, the constitutional and rule of law champions Morgen Komichi, Douglas Mwonzora, MDC-T leader Thokozani Khupe and Tapiwa Mashakada want the world to believe that their understanding of constitutionalism is what matters. Constitutionalism requires that people follow the law to the letter.
By MDC-T spokesperson Khaliphani Phungeni’s admission in an interview, the WhatsApp meeting held in May 2020 and made a resolution to recall MPs was unconstitutional and therefore a nullity.
The appropriate process that should have been followed was for the MDC-T 2014 structures to meet and deliberate on the implementation of the Supreme Court judgment. No meeting of the MDC-T 2014 structures has been held yet, so what this effectively means is that we still have factions of the MDC-T. Some members of the MDC Alliance have jumped ship to join a faction led by Khupe.
One very clear point which many people and institutions have missed is that the Supreme Court judgment did not say you must go and recall each other from Parliament.
The Supreme Court ruling only said go and try to hold an extraordinary congress of the MDCT 2014 structures as they were at February 14, 2018 when the founding president Morgan Tsvangirai died and if you fail to do that within the stipulated timeframe, it is water under the bridge.
Of cause, there was the COVID-19 excuse, even though the judgment was passed during COVID-19 era, with no evidence that it was to slow down, so the original timeframe has been extended, and the appropriate 2014 structures must now move very quickly to follow all due process and elect a replacement.
I have said it before that these MDC-T factions, given the party was born out of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), may have to seek the labour body‘s mediation if talking to each other to implement the Supreme Court judgment is proving difficult.
Finally, let me advise the MDC factions, once again, that it is not too late to invite ZCTU to mediate in your affairs before the Supreme Court-suggested extraordinary congress.
Kennedy Kaitano