It never rains for dethroned Speaker

House of Assembly sits to elect a Speaker to replace him, Clerk of Parliament Mr Austin Zvoma has said.
He can, however, still contest the post as he is a former MP.
Mr Moyo has been ordered by Parliament to retu-rn property he was using when he was Speaker.
This includes a top-of-the-range vehicle.
He should also move out of the about US$1 800 per month house that Parliament was renting for him.
“The Matobo North constituency was held by Moyo up to the date he was elected Speaker. In terms of the Constitution, once one is elected Speaker, that person ceases to hold a seat in Parliament,” explai-ned Mr Zvoma.
He went on: “The sequence of events is that he (Mr Moyo) resigned and declared the seat vacant and a by-election is pending for that seat.
“He does not revert to be MP. As at the date of the ruling of the Supreme Court, Lovemore Moyo is now an ordinary member of the public.”
Last week, the Supreme Court nullified Mr Moyo’s election as Speaker of the House of Assembly saying the process was fraught with irregularities and in breach of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
This effectively means that there is currently no presiding officer for the Lower House.
The House of Assembly will resume sitting on March 22.
“The first thing that will happen is the election of the Speaker. If we are not ready . . . for the election, then we may have to make an announcement to members of the House of Assembly to give them a date after March 22 when members will be called to come and elect a Speaker.
“It might be before March 22 or some date after. I am not in a position to say when it will happen,” Mr Zvoma said.
The Senate will not be affected and resumes business on March 29.
UK-based Zimbabwean law lecturer Dr Alex Magaisa, however, yesterday claimed Mr Moyo had not lost his Parliamentary seat.
Writing on his blog, Dr Magaisa said: “If a court of law finds that the election was irregular and invalid, it is tantamount to saying there was never an election in the first place . . .
“If it is invalid he cannot be lawfully regarded as having been duly elected. The effect of the Supreme Court’s decision is not only that he is no longer Speaker, but that he never was on account of a flawed election.”
However, other legal experts said just because a by-election had not been held did not mean the seat was vacant for Mr Moyo to take over.
“He was part of the flawed process that made him Speaker and he was part of the process that declared his Parliamentary seat vacant,” said a lawyer.
There has been serious lobbying for the vacant Speaker’s post.
Zanu-PF is likely to back the candidature of its national chairman Cde Simon Khaya Moyo while the
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MDC says it will retain its losing candidate in the 2008 elections, Mr Paul Themba Nyathi.
MDC-T wants Mr Moyo to return.
Sources said Zanu-PF was, however, still consulting among party officials and parliamentarians before announcing a candidate.
“But the general feeling is that the party has always followed the procedure that the most senior member who is in the Presidium but not in Cabinet occupies the Speaker’s post.
“The President and his deputies are already out of this equation and it is likely that we are going to settle for Cde Khaya Moyo.
“After these internal consultations we will also consult MPs from other parties because there is no party guaranteed of an outright victory without the vote of other parties,” said the source.
MDC vice president Mr Edwin Mushoriwa said they believed Mr Nyathi has what it takes to become Speaker.
“We have not changed our position because we still believe that Mr Nyathi remains a respectable person for the post,” he said.
He said they too would consult other parties.
An MDC-T source said while some officials “stubbornly” wanted Mr Moyo to bounce back, his suitability was being questioned by other party members.
“He was implicated in the voting scandal and such a person cannot be trusted to be a custodian of the rules of the House.
“Some MPs from MDC-T have reservations about him and they are convinced that Cabinet has performed better than Parliament in the last 24 months.
“MPs feel Parliamentary Portfolio Committees are performing well but the problem is the plenary chaired by Moyo,” said one source.
The former Speaker has been quoted by online news sites pouring scorn on the judiciary.
In an attack that legal experts said could result in him being charged with contempt of court, Mr Moyo reportedly said the majority of law officers “owe it to Zanu-PF and indeed they remain loyal and faithful to the cause of Zanu-PF”.
A prominent Harare lawyer yesterday said Mr Moyo risked criminal charges.
“There is a danger of contempt. One should attack the reasoning of the judgement.
“If you go for the persons then there is a big risk. The judiciary deserves a certain degree of respect,” the lawyer said.
In his dissenting judgment, Justice Luke Malaba – who was part of the five-member bench that heard the Moyo case – also raised concern over the lack of respect for judicial processes by some MDC-T officials.
“The respondents used language in their affidavits which was insultive of the first applicant (Professor Jonathan Moyo) and added nothing to the determination of the questions before the courts.
“It offended its sense of fairness and justice for the court to be put in a position in which it had to read through all the papers containing some of the impolite and discourteous language,” he said.
Justice Malaba singled out an affidavit by Labour and Social Services Minister Paurina Mpariwa as a case in point.
“Paurina Mpariwa’s use of words like ‘foolish’, ‘sell-out’ and ‘turncoat’ against another litigant in an application to be placed before a court of law reveals a serious lack of respect for judicial proceedings”.
The Supreme Court nullified Mr Moyo’s election as Speaker after Tsholotsho North MP Cde Jonathan Moyo appealed against a High Court ruling upholding his elevation to the post.