By Agencies

Fifteen recently elected parliamentarians from the opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party were dismissed on Monday after the Speaker of Parliament took note of a letter of dismissal of the deputies which was submitted to him by a person presenting himself as the interim Secretary General of the party.

The Speaker of the Parliament of Zimbabwe, Jacob Mudenda, has notified the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) that fifteen parliamentary seats are now vacant following the dismissal of opposition parliamentarians by Acting CCC Secretary-General Sengezo Tshabangu.

“I hereby notify you, in accordance with Article 39 (1) of the Electoral Law, of the vacancy of seats in Parliament, due to the fact that the Honorable Febion Munyaradzi Kufahakutizwi, elected Member of Parliament for the constituency of Mabvuku Tafara, ceased to belong to the CCC on October 4, 2023,” reads the letter sent by Mudenda to the electoral body.

But CCC chairman Nelson Chamisa has written to the Speaker of the House in an attempt to overturn the exclusion.

“At present, none of the members of Parliament elected under the banner of the CCC have been excluded from the party I lead or removed from the National Assembly, nor from any elective position in the Senate or in any local council,” Chamisa said in his letter.

Last week, Sengezo Tshabangu sent a missive to Jacob Mudenda, asking him to dismiss 15 parliamentarians and 17 councilors from the CCC, after claiming they had ceased to be members of the opposition party.