By Cathy Maulidi:
Former Southern Region vice president for opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Kondwani Nankhumwa Monday asked the court to turn the hands of time and make him a DPP member again.
Last month, DPP fired Nankhumwa and other key officials including former secretary general Grezelder Jeffrey, legislators Mark Botomani and Nicholas Dausi and former director of women Cecilia Chazama over what the party called indiscipline.
It also suspended several others for varied periods of time.
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The punishments were in relation to a National Governing Council meeting which the members attended in Lilongwe “without the blessings of the party’s leader”.
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In the High Court sitting in Lilongwe Monday, Nankhumwa’s lawyer Gift Katundu argued that DPP did not follow procedures in expelling the Mulanje Central legislator.
“What we are arguing before the court is that the court should maintain the status quo which was there, that our client should still be a member of DPP.
“The way the party conducted itself in expelling our client was not constitutional and did not follow the dictates of their own rules and, therefore, we want the court to look into that and determine at a later stage; but for now, we want an injunction to stop DPP’s decision,” Katundu said.
Through his lawyers, Nankhumwa further argues that the party’s Central Committee can only proceed to expel a member after it has conducted arbitration between the opposing parties which he posits did not happen.
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But DPP’s lawyer Charles Mhango argued that there was no need for arbitration since Nankhumwa and the party “are not in any fight”.
“They are arguing that DPP breached it constitution by expelling Nankhumwa from the party. They feel the Central Committee has no powers to expel a member but we have also counter-argued that the DPP constitution is very wide in terms of the powers that it has, from the convention, the Central Committee to the governing council,” Mhango said.
According to Mhango, Nankhumwa’s lawyers also argued that their client is holding the Leader of Opposition seat which requires a member to belong to a political party.
“But at the moment, he is not a member of DPP and, therefore, he cannot hold the position on behalf of the DPP since he stands expelled until a determination on this matter is made,” Mhango said.
He added that in court, DPP submitted video evidence of Nankhumwa telling his supporters that he had accepted the party’s decision to fire him and that he had decided to move on.
High Court Judge William Msiska has since reserved his ruling on the matter to a later date.
At the moment, there is confusion in Parliament as Nankhumwa is still holding on to the Leader of Opposition seat while sitting on opposition benches since he has no political party.
