MDC-Alliance leaders Nelson Chamisa and Morgan Komichi have
approached the High Court seeking to include an affidavit of the late Morgan
Tsvangirai in their record of appeal on their legitimacy at the Supreme Court.
In May this year, the High Court ruled that Chamisa was
illegitimately acting as the MDC leader. The court upheld his appointment as vice
president and subsequently declared his appointment as president null and void.
This followed an application by a Gokwe-based party member,
Elias Mashavire, challenging Chamisa’s power in the party, saying there was no
an extraordinary congress following the death of founding party leader
Tsvangirai last year.
Chamisa appealed against the High Court judgment at the
Supreme Court, but is now saying the appeal record is missing an affidavit from
the late party founder.
Chamisa and Komichi insist that the affidavit is critical
to the resolution of the matter.
In their application for rectification of the appeal
record, the legal counsel Tafadzwa Chagonda said parties certify the record as
correct, but it contains an omission.
“On May 8, this year the High Court handed a judgment
against the applicants who subsequently prepared a notice of appeal making
reference to earlier High Court judgement which was in favour of the
applicants,” read the application.
“The Registrar prepared the record and the applicants were
called to inspected and certified on June 19, this year. The last party
inspected and certified the record on July 25, this year. Thereafter, the
record was forwarded to the Registrar of the Supreme Court. On July 17, the
Registrar directed the applicants to file their heads of argument.
“This is when the legal counsel noticed that the certified
record was incomplete. The affidavit which is critical to the resolution of the
matter had been omitted.”
They added that, Thokozani Khupe, “on whose behalf this
disruptive position has been taken,” did not participate in the High Court
matter.
Khupe was only cited for the purpose of form in the Supreme
Court matter and should have readily conceded that there is an omission in the
court record, read the papers. Chagonda said he regretted his error in
certifying a record which had an omission and can only profusely apologise for
its incidence.
He said the affidavit will help the court in making a
determination on whether the matter has been resolved before and on what is the
proper constitution for MDC.
“When the matter was heard before the High Court, the
affidavit was before the court and was referred to,” said Chagonda. “Applicants
are not seeking to bring anything new. I don’t see why any of the respondents
should be justified in resisting this application.”
Mashavira, Elias Mudzuri, Khupe and Douglas Mwonzora were
cited as respondents. Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment