PDP ‘acting secretary general’ Rukanda bids to block Biti return to Parliament

HARARE – Benjamin Rukanda, a man claiming to be the acting secretary general of the small opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), on Wednesday approached the High Court seeking to block the return of six MDC Alliance lawmakers to parliament.

The former finance minister and founder leading of the PDP Tendai Biti, MP for Harare East; William Madzimure of Kambuzuma; Settlement Chikwinya of Mbizo; Kucaca Ivumile Phulu of Nkulumane; Sichelesile Mahlangu of Pumula and Regai Tsunga of Mutasa South were expelled from parliament last month after Rukanda wrote to the Speaker of Parliament stating that the PDP had recalled them.

The purported recalls were based on a controversial Constitutional Court ruling that the MDC Alliance was not a single party but made up of a coalition of parties, and that each party in the coalition – which included the PDP – could recall MPs elected on the Alliance ticket.

Last week, the High Court ruled that Rukanda was illegitimate and the purported recalls unlawful.

Now Rukanda has rushed to the High Court on an urgent basis, arguing that he was never served with the application by the six lawmakers, leading to the default judgement by Justice Amy Tsanga.

“Upon verification, it was discovered that the purported summons upon which the default judgement was based had not been served on me at the time they were issued as alleged,” Rukanda says in an affidavit accompanying his application for a stay of execution.

“Further, when I obtained a copy of the urgent chamber application from the High Court for the purposes of preparing an opposition to the confirmation of the provisional order, the summons had not been served on me. To make matters worse, when my legal practitioners filed the opposing papers to the confirmation, not the provisional order, the summons had not been served.”

Rukanda’s lawyer Everson Chatambudza said last week’s High Court “rendered all other pending matters academic on a technicality without dealing with the real dispute between the parties on merits.”

The matter is pending.