Ousted MDC-T vice president Dr Thokozani
Khupe has accused Parliament of turning a
blind eye to its constitutional obligation to
protect her tenure as a Member of
Parliament when it endorsed her expulsion
from the august House.

Dr Khupe, who was
the opposition party’s Proportional
Representation Member of Parliament for
Bulawayo Metropolitan, is presently
challenging her expulsion from Parliament.

Last Thursday, MDC-T leader Mr Nelson
Chamisa wrote to Speaker of Parliament
Advocate Jacob Mudenda, claiming that Dr
Khupe no longer represented the party’s
interest.

The aggrieved politician yesterday filed her
challenge at the Constitutional Court citing
Parliament, Speaker of Parliament Advocate
Mudenda and MDC-T chairman Mr Morgan
Komichi as respondents.

Dr Khupe, through her lawyer Professor
Lovemore Madhuku, wants an order
declaring that Parliament failed to fulfil its
constitutional obligation to protect the
tenure of the seat of a Member of Parliament
as required by Sections 119(1) and 129 of the
Constitution.

She also wants the court to reinstate her as
Member of Parliament, including declaring
Mr Komichi’s letter to Parliament, which was
written in terms of Section 129(1)(k) of the
Constitution, null and void.

Section 129 (1) (k) of the Constitution of
Zimbabwe provides that: “A seat of a
Member of Parliament becomes vacant if the
member has ceased to belong to the political
party of which he or she was a member when
elected to Parliament.”

It is Dr Khupe’s contention that both Sections
119(1) and 129 of the Constitution impose a
duty on Parliament to subject every dispute
that impacts on the tenure of a seat of a
Member of Parliament to the courts for
determination before recognising and acting
on the remedy provided for through Section
129(1)(k).

“Section 129(1)(k) has no automatic effect,”
stated Dr Khupe in her papers.
“If there is a dispute between a member and
any group or association purporting to be the
‘political party concerned’ within the
meaning of that expression in Section 129(1)
(k), the first respondent (Parliament) has a
constitutional obligation to protect the
tenure of the seat of a member until the
dispute relating to the requirements in
Section 129(1)(k) has been authoritatively
resolved by the courts.”

She further argues that whenever Parliament
is put on notice by any of its members
regarding a potential dispute in respect of the
requirements of Section 129(1)(k), it has a
constitutional obligation to put into motion a
process akin to interpleader proceedings and
require a court of law to resolve the dispute.
An interpleader is a suit pleaded between
two parties to determine a matter of claim or
right to property held by a third party.
“It is for the first respondent itself to invite
a court to resolve the dispute given its
constitutional obligation to protect the
tenure of seats of its members,” she argues.

“I believe that the view that all that is
required for a vacancy to arise under Section
129(1)(k) is for the second respondent
(Speaker of National Assembly) to receive a
written notice from the political party
concerned is incorrect for the simple reason
that it does not take into account the
constitutional obligations I have outlined.”

Dr Khupe also argues that whenever
Parliament’s attention is drawn to a split or
potential split in a political party, it has a
constitutional obligation not to recognise a
written notice from one of the factions
without either taking the matter to court
under an interpleader of sorts or referring
the parties to a court for determination.

“There is another constitutional obligation
that the first respondent must act reasonably
in everything it does.
“Where it acts irrationally, it breaches its
constitutional obligations.”
Dr Khupe was elected Member of Parliament
under Section 124(1) (b) representing
Bulawayo Metropolitan Province.

The Chamisa-led MDC-T is yet to respond to
the Dr Khupe’s application, which she wants
to be treated with urgency.

Until her expulsion last week, Dr Khupe was
the leader of the opposition party in the
august House by virtue of her being the
party’s deputy president.

The opposition party has become increasingly
fractious, especially after the death of its
founding leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai on
February 14.
Dr Khupe was left the acting president of the
party when Mr Tsvangirai was confined to
his hospital bed in South Africa until his
death.

Mr Chamisa, who has had a nasty fallout with
Dr Khupe over the leadership of the
opposition party since then, last week
recalled Dr Khupe from Parliament after
MDC-T’s national council – regarded as the
opposition party’s supreme decision-making
organ in between congresses – unanimously
agreed to expel her from the party accusing
her of misconduct and intransigence- The Herald.