Chamisa 'supporter' in court bid to stop MDC MPs from accepting 'Mnangagwa' cars

A cheeky Harare man who claims to be MDC leader Nelson Chamisa's supporter has thrown the cat among the pigeons through a High Court petition to stop the party's MPs from accepting allowances and vehicles from President Emmerson Mnangagwa's "illegitimate" government.

Chamisa has adamantly refused to accept Mnangagwa as both winner of the July 30 presidential election and President of the country.

His MPs have disrupted parliament during Mnangagwa's now rare appearances in the house with the latest ending in chaotic fashion when police officers stormed the chamber to drag all the legislator out.

This followed the defiant legislators' refusal to stand up to show respect to Mnangagwa who had entered parliament for Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube's budget statement announcement.

But in what could be a Zanu-PF attempt to throw the MDC camp into disarray, a Justice Garikai has since filed a court challenge to stop the MPs from accepting vehicles bought through the Mnangagwa government.

According to MDC Alliance secretary general Douglas Mwonzora, Garikai claims to have voted for both Chamisa and Kuwadzana MP Charlton Hwende in the July elections.

"We have received a court application from a man called Justice Garikai claiming to be an MDC member from Kuwadzana East constituency," Mwonzora said.

"He wants parliament to stop paying allowances to our party legislators and that they refuse vehicles from Mnangagwa's government because it is illegitimate".

Mwonzora described the application as "bizarre".

Garikai, according to Mwonzora, argues that Chamisa has repeatedly told his supporters that he won the elections, hence the party's MPs must only accept parliament's benefits once the opposition leader has been inaugurated as the country's Head of State.

"It is quiet bizarre and we will need to get to the bottom of this," Mwonzora said.

"Garikai claims to have voted for President Chamisa and Honourable Hwende. His argument is that because our party has taken this election matter to the African Union and President Chamisa has said we will reverse the electoral theft, so taking benefits from the current regime, according to him, is tantamount to accepting bribes.

"He says he does not expect the MDC to oppose the application because we have been boycotting Mnangagwa and the party's official position in that Mnangagwa is not legitimate.

"We will look at the application and come up with a position as a party. It is the usual Zanu-PF way of fighting us at every turn. It's what I call 'law-fare' in which the regime uses the law to stall the day struggle."

The main opposition lost heavily in the legislative elections but Chamisa came close to upstaging Mnangagwa in the presidential poll by just over 6% of the national vote. The Zanu-PF leader polled 50.6% of the vote.

Chamisa approached the Constitutional Court seeking to overturn Mnangagwa's victory but the petition was thrown out for lack of evidence.

Party Vice President Elias Mudzuri has been hauled over the coals after attending a parliamentary function which was hosted by Mnangagwa at State House last week.

Hwende led the charge of accusing the opposition Senator of "endorsing" the Zanu-PF regime.