1. A known unknown: the ruling party & parliamentary leadership haven’t forgiven the MDC Alliance for sustained acts of defiance such as refusal to acknowledge ED when he comes to Parliament. It hurts him. They’ve just found convenient proxies to enforce punishment #ZanupfMustGo
2. It would be foolhardy for MDC Alliance MPs to imagine it can still be business as usual. Speaker Mudenda has just placed them under the guardianship of Thokozani Khupe, who was their rival at the elections. It’s an insult to voters who overwhelmingly rejected her & her party
3. It’s only in deeply corrupt Zimbabwe where you can contest and win elections under one party & one leader but, with the help of the state and the ruling party, another leader and another party can remove you from Parliament & it’s considered perfectly lawful #ZanupfMustGo
4. You have Khupe who is unelected; Mwonzora & Komichi who are in the Senate by virtue of proportional representation have the audacity to recall MPs who were voted directly into office by the people. For no reason except a claim to power. The absurdity doesn’t even occur to them
5. If it was a matter of principle, Mwonzora & Komichi, who were elected to the Senate on the basis of a party-list system (that party being the MDC Alliance) would have resigned since they chose to abandon that party. But it’s not about principle. It never was.
6. ZANU PF under ED is not up for gentlemanly politics anymore. The strategy is one of asphyxiation of the opposition, using willing instruments within the opposition & political referees. Short of radical measures, we’re witnessing a slow & painful death of opposition politics
7. If the MDC Alliance does not yet feel the asphyxiation that we are witnessing, when it does it will be too late. ZANU PF under ED has broken all the taboos; the things that even MPs always a club across party lines, would not do to each other. They’ve crossed the Rubicon.
8. The MDC Alliance will lose public trust if it does not take a firm stand against plain abuse of institutions by ZANU PF & its surrogates. Since the surrogates think they have the power of recall, the best way to disarm them is to take it away. Restart the system.
