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AMHVoices: Khupe, your elected term expired in 2019

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Dear Dr Khupe, I JOIN you in celebrating the Supreme Court endorsement of the High Court judgment that ruled that the appointment of Nelson Chamisa as MDC-T acting president shortly after the death of the MDC founding leader, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai, was unconstitutional, and that you are the rightful acting president of the MDC-T.

Dear Dr Khupe,

I JOIN you in celebrating the Supreme Court endorsement of the High Court judgment that ruled that the appointment of Nelson Chamisa as MDC-T acting president shortly after the death of the MDC founding leader, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai, was unconstitutional, and that you are the rightful acting president of the MDC-T.

I have been listening to arguments by legal minds who are saying this judgment is enforceable and those who are saying it is not enforceable, and accept that both arguments are strong and should not be taken lightly. However, using the intelligence of a professional information analyst, I now concur with those who are saying this is just an academic judgment which is meant to be used for future such circumstances as in this case the judgment is coming after the horse has already bolted.

One major hurdle for those saying the judgment is enforceable is that the constitution that has been used to make the judgment clearly stipulates that the president elected at the extra-ordinary congress shall serve a term of office equivalent to the remaining term of the last elected president. Can you, therefore, Khupe stop for a while and remind yourself how many years were remaining for Tsvangirai to complete his term as MDC-T president after the 2014 congress. Has that time frame not lapsed?

The court judgment here may have been meant to test the reasoning of people who do not understand mathematics, those who, like President Emmerson Mnangagwa will say 10+4 is equal to 40. 2014 plus five years is equal to 2019, so Tsvangirai’s term would have expired in 2019, simple mathematics.

Clever politicians should be looking into the future rather than wasting time on judgments that are not enforceable. Khupe, have a serious think about this during the remaining period of the shutdown. Thank God coronavirus gave the opportunity for you to think carefully and plan the next move — and you acknowledged that in your speech in response to the judgment. I thank God too that He gave you the wisdom not to rush things, unlike Douglas Mwonzora who couldn’t waste any time to call Morgen Komichi the chairman of the MDC-T in violation of the very Supreme Court ruling which said the party should revert to its 2014 structures, and the MDC-T chairman at that point in 2014 was Lovemore Moyo.

Mwonzora has clearly violated the Supreme Court ruling, and Khupe, if you are a follower of the rule of law as you have made the world believe, you should fire him for endorsing an “illegitimately appointed” chairman who was elevated to the chair during Chamisa’s time as acting president. You should also fire Komichi for usurping the powers of the MDC-T 2014 chairman, and went on to reinstate employees and officials who he claims were fired by the party, some of them who may have been fired during his reign as “chair”.

If you think the Supreme Court ruling is enforceable, after firing Mwonzora and Komichi, call in Moyo and ask him if he finds it making sense to call an extra-ordinary congress to replace Tsvangirai for the period from now to 2019 when Tsvagirai’s term ended, and if Moyo finds it making sense, then proceed to call for the extra-ordinary congress, but given the reality that Tsvangirai’s term has already expired, you may have to call for a national council meeting composed of members who were in council as elected at the 2014 congress, and national council will make the decision on the way forward.

Otherwise if you proceed to unconstitutionally call for an extra-ordinary congress to elect someone whose term has long expired, you will be demonstrating the same dictatorial tendencies that you have accused others of.

I have said several times before that the best way would have been for you to talk to Chamisa about these things, even well before the congress you held in Bulawayo in 2018. I continued to say if talking fails, you and Chamisa should kiss each other goodbye amicably, and all the advice fell on deaf ears.

I reiterate that in my view, the Supreme Court judgment is an academic judgment that is only meant to be referred to in similar cases should they arise in future, but for now, you cannot shut the stable door as the horse has already bolted.

Things have happened that cannot be reversed. Tsvangirai’s term expired in 2019 and the Supreme Court judgment clearly says the leader elected should be in office until 2019. Good luck Khupe.

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