Zimbabwe: ZANU-PF One Step Closer to Return Of One-Party State

Reports on Wednesday afternoon indicate that Zimbabwean MPs Tendai Biti, Willias Madzimure and Settlement Chikwinya, as well as three other legislators have been removed from the Zimbabwean parliament. 

Biti was the Vice President of the country’s main opposition party, the MDC Alliance.

The announcement came from National Assembly Speaker Jacob Mudenda. 

Additional MPs to be expelled are Mutasa South MP, Regai Tsunga, Pumula’s Sichelesile Mahlangu and Nkulumane MP Kucaca Phulu, decided by People’s Democratic Party secretary general Benjamin Rukanda. 

Reasoning behind these expulsions is yet to be given, however the expulsions follow a High Court judge ruling last week that the PDP faction had the power to recall the party’s MPs who had joined the post-election MDC Alliance. This ruling was appealed at the Supreme Court and failed. 

The High Court judge, Justice Sylvia Chirawu-Mugomba, ruled that after supporting another party, “self-expulsion” from any other party should be automatic. 

The founder of Democracy in Africa, Prof Nic Cheeseman, believes that this move will enable ZANU-PF to get “even closer to realising its dream of a return to the one-party state”, as a result of these expulsions in opposition parties. 

The events cast further ignominy on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration , which has often been accused of authoritarian tendencies.

Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu is a close friend of President Mnangagwa, publicly congratulating the Zimbabwean premier on his election victory in 2018 and attending his swearing-in ceremony. The pair have frequently been likened to each other in the media.