'Rebel' MDC members to appeal to Supreme Court in bid to oust Tsvangirai

Senior officials of Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party plan to appeal a High Court decision against their bid to oust Morgan Tsvangirai as party president. MDC deputy secretary-general Gift Chimanikire told IRIN that he would be consulting with secretary-general Welshman Ncube and other party leaders opposed to Tsvangirai. "We have a very strong case and we are definitely going to appeal to the Supreme Court today," Chimanikire said. On Friday last week, Zimbabwe High Court Judge Yunus Omerjee dismissed an application by the 'rebel' faction of the MDC seeking to remove Tsvangirai as party leader. Omerjee did not give reasons for his decision to reject the application - brought by Chimanikire on behalf of the faction led by secretary-general Ncube, party deputy president Gibson Sibanda, and the party's former spokesman, Paul Themba Nyathi - but said a full judgment would be released later. Tsvangirai's lawyer, Selby Hwacha, told the court Tsvangirai's suspension was void because he had not been charged or convicted of an offence, and pointed out that the MDC "constitution "empowers the committee to suspend only where a member has been found guilty of an offence". The MDC leader fell out with Ncube and others after he ordered the MDC to boycott last month's senate election, saying the poll was a waste of resources in a country that should be focusing all its energies on fighting the hunger threatening three million people.