Elton MupaukaHarare-Former MDC vice president Elias Mudzuri has called on the MDC family to unite and fight for a common cause and urged reinstated Secretary General Douglas Mwonzora not to purge legislators.
In a wide ranging interview in Harare the former Harare Mayor said the members of parliament were representing the will of the electorate.
“I don’t enjoy anyone getting out of Parliament. I don’t want that to happen, as a senior member, those people have worked in their own different ways whether they went there (Parliament) by hook or crook but they are there representing the MDC,” Mudzuri said.
“We don’t want to withdraw parliamentarians. Why should we want them not to work for the people? Their job is within their constituencies.
“Right now it’s the time of COVID-19 and I have said we don’t want to recall any parliamentarians. However, those who are going to extremes in terms of attacking each other, may be recalled because it becomes difficult to work with them, but I don’t see the reason why MPs should be withdrawn because they must be able to take the government to task and ask it to be answerable.
“We are less than a third of (opposition) parliamentarians, we must make this government account, especially at this time of COVID-19. They must be able to do what is necessary. They must be able to bring food to hungry people who have not been going to work, they must bring medication wherever is necessary.”
Mudzuri the power to recall MPs rested with the party and not an individual.
“The power is not with Mwonzora, the power to withdraw MPs is with the MDC which was left by Morgan Tsvangirai. This is the time for MPs to go and face government, not to say we are for Mwonzora or we are for Hwende, we are for Mudzuri or we are for Chamisa. This is the time for them to represent the ordinary person who is in the village or in the streets”