By A Correspondent- MDC legislators are facing the urgent and difficult decision of choosing between Thokozani Khupe and Nelson Chamisa – in the process risking losing their parliamentary positions and benefits.
This comes as the government has made it clear that if the legislators choose to withdraw from Parliament – as they are being urged to do by Chamisa and his close allies – authorities will promptly withdraw all their perks, including their top-of-the-range vehicles.
What this means, with regards to the vehicles, is that the MPs will – minimally – be expected to repay the full amount of the loans that were advanced to them when they acquired the vehicles, including all the duties payable.
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Some of the MDC legislators who spoke to the Daily News On Sunday at the weekend said they were in “a lose-lose fix” because either decision – to follow Khupe or Chamisa – came with pitfalls.
“We are in an impossible situation for sure. It’ s a lose-lose fix and the overwhelming majority of us don’ t know what to do at the moment.
“If we remain with Chamisa, who is clearly struggling to withstand the pressure against him, we will lose everything, because most of us survive on our parliamentary benefits.
“On the other hand, we are not sure either at the moment how the Khupe ship will sail going forward. Most of our legislators are thus between a rock and a hard place,” one of the MPs said.
Another anguished legislator said they were unfairly being asked to make the “impossible decision of choosing between our livelihoods and our political careers”.
He said defying Chamisa would “probably mean the end of my political career beyond this current term if Chamisa ultimately triumphs over Khupe.
“But then again, I risk being kicked out of Parliament immediately if I defy Khupe. There is also no guarantee that I will get my seat back through a by-election or when the next general elections are held.
“The hard reality is that for many of us it (Parliament) is our sole source of income. We are in a terrible bind,” he said.
All this comes after the Supreme Court recently upheld last year’ s ruling by the High Court, which said Chamisa’ s ascendancy to the leadership of the MDC had violated the opposition party’ s constitution and was, therefore, null and void.
In the unanimous judgement handed down by Supreme Court judges Paddington Garwe, Bharat Patel and Antoinette Guvava, Chamisa’ s elevation to the MDC’ s presidency was thus declared unconstitutional.
The ruling also automatically re-instated former MDC secretary general Douglas Mwonzora and ex-chairperson Morgen Komichi – who both lost their positions at the party’ s chaotic congress in Gweru last year – to their previous positions.
And in addition to installing Khupe as interim party president, it also ordered her to convene an extraordinary MDC congress to elect a new leadership within three months.
Last week, the Khupe group successfully recalled Chalton Hwende (Kuwadzana East), Tabitha Khumalo (MDC proportional representative), Prosper Mutseyami (Dangamvura) and Midlands senator Lillian Timveos, from Parliament, as it flexed its muscles and demonstrated that it is fully in charge of the beleaguered party for now.
The group has also since further moved to enlist the services of police to occupy the iconic Morgan Richard Tsvangirai (MRT) House – formerly known as Harvest House.