CITIZENS Coalition for Change (CCC) has lost 14 parliamentary and nine senate seats after the High Court threw out an application by affected members who were seeking to be reinstated.
The lawmakers and senators were controversially recalled by Sengezo Tshabangu who claims to be the party’s interim Secretary General.
poster
The matter was heard by Justice Munamato Mutevedzi who had reserved his judgement on Thursday.
In their court application, the recalled lawmakers and senators through their lawyers Amanda Ndlovu, Jabulani Ndlovu and Alec Muchadehama argued that Tshabangu was not a CCC member and therefore lacked legal authority to act on behalf of the party.
On the other hand, Tshabangu through his lawyer Advocate Lewis Uriri argued that the party was happy with the recall hence was not part of the proceedings.
The judge concurred with Tshabungu noting that the applicants’ case had a weak foundation.
“Just like it is difficult if not impossible for a man to impugn the paternity of his brother without directly involving the parents it is naïve for a member of a political party to approach a court seeking to prove that another is a non-member of the same party without the involvement of the political party itself,” noted the judge.
“A closer reading of s 129(1) (k) would show that nowhere in it is the Member of Parliament accorded any active role.
“The power of recall from Parliament created by s 129(1) (k) of the Constitution is reposed in the political party to which the Member of Parliament belonged at the time of the election.
“It is that concerned party which recalls a Member. By parity of reasoning the Member cannot contest his/her recall against any other person without joining the concerned political party,” he said.
He added, “Put in another way, the parasite and host relationship described above is not removed by the allegation that there is an intruder or an insurgent who has come between the concerned political party and the Member and has arrogated himself the political party’s entitlement. ”
