Fifteen recently elected parliamentarians from Zimbabwe’s opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party were fired Monday after the Speaker of Parliament took note of a letter dismissing the legislators submitted to him by someone purporting to be the party’s interim secretary general.
Zimbabwe’s parliamentary speaker Jacob Mudenda notified the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of the now vacant 15 parliamentary seats following the recalling of the opposition legislators by Sengezo Tshabangu.
“I hereby notify you, in terms of Section 39 (1) of the Electoral Act, that a vacancy now exists in the membership of Parliament, by reason of Hon Febion Munyaradzi Kufahakutizwi, who was the elected Member of Parliament for Mabvuku Tafara Constituency having ceased to belong to the CCC on 4 October 2023,” said Mudenda’s letter to the electoral body.
But CCC President Nelson Chamisa wrote to the Speaker in an attempt to nullify the expulsion of his legislators.
“As at present, none of the Members of Parliament who were elected under the CCC have been expelled from the party I lead or recalled from the National Assembly, or for that matter, from any elected position in the Senate or any local council,” Chamisa said in the letter.
Tshabangu last week wrote to Mudenda purporting to withdraw 15 parliamentarians and 17 councilors from the opposition CCC after claiming they had ceased to be members of the opposition party.