Aspiring treasury general for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party stalwart David Coltart has described as meaningless thunderbolt High Court ruling that nullified party president Nelson Chamisa’s appointment to vice president by the late former party leader Dr Richard Morgan Tsvangirai.
The ruling comes on the backdrop of power tussles that manifested in the labour backed movement between Nelson Chamisa and Thokhozani Khupe after the latter refused to accept the ascendancy of Chamisa to the helm of the party which came at the blessing of the National Council; the highest decision making party organ between congresses.
Justice Edith Mushore’s ruling further nullified all party processes that Chamisa presided saying he was not permissible under the party constitution as the 41 year old opposition leader’s ascendancy to the helm of the party comes to a spotlight again.
“The appointment of 2nd and 3rd respondents as deputy Presidents of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Party were unconstitutional and therefore null and void.
“The appointment of 2nd Respondents as Acting President and the President of the Movement for Democratic Change party were unconstitutional and therefore null and void.
“All appointments and or/reassignments and all actions of the 2nd respondent in his purported capacities as Deputy/Acting or incumbent President were unconstitutional, and therefore null and void.
The 1st respondent be and is hereby ordered to hold an Extra-Ordinary Congress after the elapse of at least one month after the date of this Order.
Respondents are ordered to pay the applicants costs of suit, jointly and severally, the one paying the other to be absolved,” read part of the ruling.
However, the former education minister during the government of National Unity (GNU), Coltart, said the party is set to appeal the ruling while remaining confident that the ruling will not interfere with the congress to which Chamisa will formally assume party Presidency having received unanimous nomination from the party structures across the country including party fan base in the diaspora’s United Kingdom, United States and South Africa.
“It will be appealed. This is what is called a brutum fulmen – ‘empty thunder’, an ineffective order. By the time the appeal is heard a duly constituted Congress of the MDC will have been held and Nelson Chamisa elected. Pathetic interference with the due process of a party,” he wrote on his micro blog Twitter Wednesday.
Party spokesperson Jacob Mafume said the court ruling is President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s attempt to divert the MDC from focus while trying to sanitize his illegitimacy issues.
“We are fully aware of the machinations and strategies being deployed by the Mnangagwa administration to destabilize and destroy the people’s project. We reiterate that Emmerson Mnangagwa is illegitimate and no amount of diversionary tactics will change this fact.
“For the avoidance of doubt, preparations for the main Congress are at an advanced stage and 6 800 delegates will attend. That process is irreversible,” Mafume said.
