THE court battle between the government and a Harare man over the construction of the statue of First Chimurenga heroine Mbuya Nehanda has escalated after the latter launched a new application.
Felix Elijah Shamuyarira initially approached the High
Court in July last year insisting that the government was making a grave
mistake in constructing the statue of the late heroine as they had not
consulted her family before proceeding with their plans.
In his application, Shamuyarira, who claims he is related
to the late spirit medium, cited Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe, Local
Government minister July Moyo, National Archives director Ivan Murambiwa,
National Museums director Godfrey Mahachi as well as National Assembly Speaker Jacob
Mudenda as the respondents.
The matter was heard on December 30 before High Court judge
Justice David Mangota, who directed Shamuyarira to make amendments to the draft
order.
In the recent application filed at the court, Shamuyarira
is challenging the application for condonation filed by Kazembe and the other
respondents on March 2.
He is seeking to have the application dismissed and is
arguing that the claim by the respondents that they failed to file opposing
papers on time due to their optimism of an out-of-court settlement is untrue as
the parties have never engaged in a settlement meeting.
“There is no way the applicants would have anticipated
reaching an out-of -court settlement with first respondent (Shamuyarira), when
in fact there was no meeting or engagement with anyone held on the 7th and 8th
of August 2020 as falsified herein. The contents herein are a blatant lie.
“The applicants herein and the first respondents in Case
No. HC3868/20 was supposed to file opposing papers no later than the 6th of
August 2020.
“Therefore, as the applicants knew very well that no
engagement and consultations took place with the first respondent on the 7th
and 8th of August 2020.
“Therefore, in full view of these fabrications the
applicants’ application for condonation and extension of time must fail as is
based on false statement.”
Shamuyarira is further seeking to be granted leave to amend
the founding affidavit and the draft order of the initial application. Daily News
0 comments:
Post a Comment