Munyaradzi Kereke who was last week jailed for raping his minor niece at gunpoint in 2010, has lost his Bikita West seat.
Kereke automatically lost his parliamentary seat soon after a court slapped him with a 10-year-jail term last week, Parliament heard yesterday.
Deputy Speaker, Mabel Chinomona, yesterday told the House that section 129 (1) of the Constitution declares that any MP convicted of an offence and slapped with a prison sentence of more than six months automatically loses their seat.
In an unrelated matter, Labour and Public Service deputy minister Tapiwanashe Matangaidze yesterday angered opposition MPs, when he insisted that government still had the capacity to pay civil servants, despite the salary delays experienced since last year.
“Yes, government has capacity to pay civil servants’ salaries. But currently, there are some challenges with the capacity to pay, but government is putting in place methods to pay civil servants on a staggered basis, whereby, anytime the situation will be regularised,” he said. MPs also queried why soldiers were always the first to get paid. Newsday