MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s faction has stalled on the recall of 11 MPs including axed secretary-general Tendai Biti amid reports that it has chosen a political route over the legal one to resolve to end the impasse, NewsDay has established.
Paidamoyo Muzulu Senior Reporter
Informed party sources confirmed that the faction was now divided on how to handle the planned recalling of the 11 MPs considering the legal hurdles that would likely emerge.
The faction despite receiving a mandate from its national council a fortnight ago was still to initiate the recalling process in Parliament after expelling Biti and 10 others.
The expulsions were triggered after the Biti-led faction held a parallel national council meeting that “suspended” Tsvangirai and six of his chief lieutenants including Nelson Chamisa (national organising secretary), Thokozani Khupe (vice-president), Morgen Komichi (national deputy chairman), Lovemore Moyo (national chairman) and Douglas Mwonzora (party spokesperson).
Mwonzora yesterday said the party was still pursuing the option to recall the 11, but would not specifically mention when that would be done.
“We will recall them soon, but I cannot be able to say exactly when. We will exercise that option after the meeting of the standing committee to deal with the issue tomorrow (today),” Mwonzora said.
The 13-member standing committee which has been whittled to nine after the expulsion of Biti, Elton Mangoma (national deputy treasurer-general), Solomon Madzore (national youth president) and the absence of Roy Bennett (national treasurer-general), who is based South Africa in self-imposed exile, is chaired by Tsvangirai.
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Mwonzora also confirmed that the MDC-T was considering amending its constitution at its October congress in relation to the secretary-general’s functions. “Since we are going to congress, one of the items high on the agenda is the amending of the constitution.
“There is need for us to rationalise the various functions of office holders so that a clear chain of command is observed,” Mwonzora said.
“The secretary-general is number five in the party hierarchy and you cannot have a number five seemingly having more power than the numbers two to four.” The MDC-T hierarchy includes the president, vice-president, national chairman, deputy national chairman and secretary- general.
