A Zimbabwean judge on Wednesday nullified the appointment of Nelson Chamisa as leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in a judgment likely to further destabilise a party already battling to contain serious divisions.
High Court judge Edith Mushore ruled that MDC founding president Morgan Tsvangirai violated the party’s constitution when he appointed three vice presidents in July 2016 when the organisation’s statutes only provided for one deputy president.
The late Tsvangirai appointed Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri as two new MDC vice presidents, bringing to three the number of his deputies.
Thokozani Khupe was prior to that the sole vice president following elections held at the party’s congress held in 2014.
Following Tsvangirai’s death in 2018, Khupe contested the elevation of Chamisa to the party presidency ahead of her and won the case.
Chamisa and his colleagues left the party and formed a splinter group called MDC Alliance under whose banner they contested Zimbabwe’s 2018 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Mushore directed the party should hold an extraordinary congress within a month using party structures that existed in 2014, the time of the last congress.
The ruling follows an application by one of the party’s officials Elias Mashavire challenging the decision by Tsvangirai to unilaterally hand-pick Chamisa and Mudzuri to the VP positions ahead of others in the contest to succeed him.
JN/APA