Citizens Coalition for Change Chief Whip Amos Chibaya has pleaded with the Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda to disregard a letter from Sengezo Tshabangu recalling 15 legislators.
Tshabangu wrote a letter to the Speaker of the National Assembly, claiming that he is the interim secretary general of Citizens Coalition for Change, advising that 15 legislators had ceased to be members of the party.
This saw Mudenda acting on the letters by informing the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) about vacancies in 15 constitutions.
However, speaking in the National Assembly, after the Speaker had announced the recalls, Chibaya said Tshabangu is not a member and that there was no position of secretary general in CCC.
Below is the full text of what Chibaya said:
HON. CHIBAYA: Hon. Speaker, I want to put it on record that
as CCC, we did not recall any Member of Parliament. As CCC, we do not have that position of Secretary-General. Hon. Speaker, we wrote a letter to you on 11 th September notifying you that all correspondence comes through the office of our president, Advocate Chamisa.
Hon. Speaker, after seeing those recalls on social media, we wrote another letter again to your office, explaining that as CCC, we do not have that position of Secretary-General. Hon. Speaker, I do not think it is proper to action or even rule in favour of Tshabangu.
Hon. Speaker, it is not proper to only read the letter from Tshabangu and ignore the letter we left at your office. Hon. Speaker, I do not think that if anyone wrote a letter purporting to be ZANU-PF secretary-general, you are going to effect that letter.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order, order. When a Member
raises a point of order, that Member is allowed to raise the point of
order. That does not mean you have been curtailed, but I want you to wind up. Hon. Member, what is your point of order?
AN HON. MEMBER: Hon. Speaker, my point of order is that we
are not here to discuss political party structures.
HON. CHIBAYA: Hon. Speaker, I am aware that Parliament is
going through the induction process, so she is still learning.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, in other words, you are saying my ruling to call her to make her point is wrong? Withdraw that statement.
HON. CHIBAYA: Hon. Speaker, I am actually supporting your
ruling, but it is okay, I withdraw my statement. In terms of Section 129 of the Constitution, only a party which sponsored Hon. Members to come to this august House has the right to recall its members. However, in this case, Tshabangu is not a member of our party CCC nor is he our Secretary-General, a post that does not exist in our party.
Therefore, Hon. Speaker, as CCC and as Organiser of CCC, I said earlier on that we did not recall any member. We do not know which party Tshabangu belongs to, but our Members will remain in this august House because we did not recall them from being Members of our party. Unless Hon. Speaker you want to collapse Parliament and even Government itself, because we cannot allow a situation whereby a person who is not a Member of our party can recall our Members.
– [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – It must not be political. This is Parliament and not ZANU PF Headquarters – [HON. MEMBERS: Yes!] – Hon. Speaker, I withdraw the last part of my statement – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – I stand with my submission that as CCC, we did not recall anyone from this august House. I thank you.
HON. SPEAKER: If you listened very carefully to the last part of
my statement, I said I cannot adjudicate on that issue you raised. There is a forum, I go by the letter that I received first and foremost. Thank you
