BULAWAYO – Three legislators from Zimbabwean Deputy Premier Arthur Mutambara’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-M) formation have filed papers with the High Court in Bulawayo seeking an order setting aside the outcome of their disciplinary hearing, their lawyer said at the weekend.

The legislators – Abednico Bhebhe (Nkayi South), Norman Mpofu (Bullima East) and Njabuliso Mguni (Lupane East) – walked out of an MDC-M party disciplinary hearing last week, saying the hearing was unprocedural.

Their lawyer, Thamsanqa Khumalo, said the three legislators are arguing that the charges that they are facing are vague and want the disciplinary committee to furnish them with specific charges before the hearing could proceed.

“We have filed papers to the High Court to challenge the unprocedural manner the MDC disciplinary committee wanted to conduct things and my clients walked out because we could not participate in the hearing when we did not have specific charges and dates and venues of when the crimes were committed and we were not furnished with names and statements from witnesses,” Khumalo said.

He said that they wanted the courts to set aside the disciplinary hearing proceedings and order the disciplinary committee to provide them with full details of the charges against the legislators before the disciplinary hearing is re-scheduled to another date.

The three Members of Parliament (MPs) are part of a group of eight officials that was suspended by the MDC-M over two months ago and are charged with urging party supporters to shift their allegiance to the main MDC faction led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T).

The other five party members are national youth chairman Gift Nyandoro, an official Alex Goosen and former legislator Job Sikhala, while two other legislators – Thandeko Mnkandla (Gwanda North) and Maxwell Dube (Tsholotsho South) – are also set to appear before the disciplinary committee to face misconduct charges.

The chairperson of the party’s disciplinary committee Lyson Mlambo last Friday said the committee had already made a decision on the outcome of the disciplinary hearing and said the party would announce the verdict soon.

“The Members of Parliament chose not to participate in the hearings after making certain demands which we felt were unreasonable and we went ahead with the hearing without them and certain decisions were taken without them and the decisions will be made public soon,” Mlambo said.

He said the three MPs who were charged together with Goosen, were employing delaying tactics on the matter.

“You do not need written statements in a civil matter and the witnesses were present and the legislators had the latitude to cross examine them but they did not utilise the opportunity, they feared facing the witnesses and by walking out they are using delaying tactics,” Mlambo said.

Khumalo on his part said the charges levelled against his clients were ridiculous and general.

“The charges levelled against my clients are ridiculous. An example is the case of Mpofu who is accused of campaigning for Tsvangirai between June 2008 and March 2009 and we are saying the charge is vague because we need specific dates and the exact location where he is said to have campaigned for Tsvangirai.

“The period cited by the party as the time Mpofu allegedly started campaigning for Tsvangirai is June 2008 and the party at that time made a national decision to campaign for Tsvangirai and that decision was not rescinded officially so the charges are vague when you look at such instances,” Khumalo said.

Last month the MDC-M suffered a body blow when the party’s entire Nkayi district leadership and all 23 councillors crossed the floor to join the MDC-T, in protest against the suspension of Bhebhe.

Mutambara, a brilliant robotics professor, became the president of the smaller wing of Zimbabwe’s MDC party after it split in 2005 into two rival factions with the larger group led by Tsvangirai.

By Zimonline