Butau's Parly expulsion challenge thrown out

A bid by expelled Mbire legislator Mr David Butau to protect his National Assembly seat has hit a brick wall after the High Court last Friday threw out his urgent chamber application.

Justice David Mangota ruled that the application lacked urgency.

Mr Butau, together with several other party members linked to former Vice President Dr Joice Mujuru's cabal that was angling to illegally remove President Mugabe, were last week kicked out of Zanu-PF.

They were accused of gross misconduct for their alleged involvement in a plot to unconstitutionally unseat President Mugabe.

Messrs Butau, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti of Mwenezi East and Ray Kaukonde of Marondera Central were eventually expelled from Parliament after Zanu-PF wrote to Speaker of National Assembly Jacob Mudenda disowning them.

In an urgent chamber application filed at the Electoral Court on Tuesday, Mr Butau listed Zanu-PF, the party's secretary for Administration Ignatius Chombo and Speaker of National Assembly Mudenda as respondents.

Mr Butau wanted to stop the revolutionary party and Chombo from instructing Mudenda to declare his seat vacant.

In terms of the Constitution, a Member of Parliament shall lose his seat if the member ceases to belong to the political party of which he or she was a member when elected to Parliament, and the political party concerned, by written notice to the Speaker or the President of the Senate, as the case may be, has declared that the member has ceased to belong to it.

Mr Butau argued that if he was recalled from Parliament, President Mugabe was obliged to declare dates for by-election in Mbire Constituency.

"A wholly gigantic State and legal machinery will begin to act on those dates and any action I might take might fail to arrest the same and protect my rights," he said.

Mwenezi East National Assembly member Mr Bhasikiti, who was also expelled from Zanu-PF took President Mugabe to the same court on Tuesday challenging his expulsion from the revolutionary movement.

This was followed with an urgent application on Wednesday, in which Mr Bhasikiti sought the court to stop Parliament from declaring his seat vacant after receiving any communication to expel him.

However, Justice Mangota on Friday threw out Mr Bhasikiti's urgent application because it had been overtaken by events. When the parties appeared before him for hearing, the seat had already been declared vacant.