by Innocent Mujeri
The MDC T has today expelled Nelson Chamisa from the party for violating that party’s constitution and making National Standing Committee appointments without the authority to do so.
The expulsion of Chamisa was announced by the MDC T Secretary General Douglass Mwonzora, in a statement he released this afternoon.
“I note that following the Supreme Court judgment, MDC and others v Elias Mashavira and others (SC56/2020) of 31 March 2020, which ruled that you were no longer the President of the Movement for Democratic Change which was formerly led by the late Dr. Morgan Tsvangirai, you have continued to defy the court order.
“The latest incident is when on 21 May 2020 you issued a communication to the effect that you had in your capacity as the President of the MDC Alliance Party made certain appointments and redeployments to the Party’s National Standing Committee. You could only have made these appointments as president of the party other than the party that was referred to in the Supreme Court judgment in the case mentioned above,” reads Mwonzora’s letter to Chamisa.
The same letter insinuated that in terms of clause 5.10 (a) of the constitution of the MDC party, Chamisa had automatically terminated his membership of the MDC which was formerly led by Morgan Tsvangirai because he had joined or formed another party.
On 31 March, this year, the Supreme Court confirmed the High Court’s decision that declared Nelson Chamisa, an illegitimate leader of the MDC reinstating Thokozani Khupe as the acting president of the opposition outfit and the party to revert back to the 2014 party structures.
According to the 2014 MDC structures, Chamisa was to revert back to be the party’s Secretary for Policy and Research, but buoyed by his loyalists, he has continuously defied the judgment insisting that he is still the legitimate leader of the MDC.
The MDC is currently embroiled in factional fights pitting Khupe and Chamisa after it had failed to constitutionally fill the leadership vacuum caused by Tsvangirai’s death in February 2018. The fight is threatening to destroy the 21-year-old opposition party.
