THE Zimbabwe Miners’ Federation (ZMF), led by Ishmael
Kaguru, has described the disbandment of the ZMF and formation of a new body —
the Zimbabwe Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners’ Federation (ZASMF) — as illegal
and dubious.
ZMF president Henrietta Rushwaya recently lost the
presidency of the association after the High Court declared null and void the
results and proceedings of the elections which brought her to the helm of the
small-scale miners’ body.
The High Court directed the old executive, led by Kaguru,
to take over the leadership of ZMF and lead the organisation to election soon.
Interestingly, as the court ruling was just being handed
down on March 26, 2019, the ZMF executive led by Rushwaya announced a decision
to change its name to the ZASMF, a decision Kaguru described as invalid.
“We want to notify miners of the current situation because
they don’t know that things have changed. What is only left for now is to
appoint a board of five people to investigate the issue of Rushwaya. As soon as
the board completes its investigations we are going to have the elections,”
Kaguru said.
Asked about what would happen since the Rushwaya-led
executive had disbanded ZMF and came up with a new organisation — ZASMF —
Kaguru said: “It’s a dubious thing. It was done out of frustration. Who
mandated them to do that because ZMF constitution doesn’t allow that? It’s null
and void,” he said.
Contacted for comment, Rushwaya’s lawyer advocate Tapson
Dzvetero said the statements by Kaguru were misplaced.
“That is a purely wrong statement. What provision is he
relating to in the miners’ federation which precludes or stops the formation of
an organisation?” he asked.
“In a nutshell, the federation is just a federation which
is formed in terms of its constitution and there is nothing that stops anyone
in Zimbabwe from forming an organisation using its own constitution and their
own trust. They are free human beings to do that.”
Dzvetero said it was premature for Kaguru’s executive to
celebrate as the matter was subject to litigation.
“The matter is still subject to litigation because there
has been an appeal that has been lodged against that order. So it is still
subjudice and it is premature for you to say they have lost when there is still
an appeal which is pending. The effect of the appeal is to suspend the effect
of the order that they are relating to. So you have to await the decision of
the Supreme Court on the issue,” he said.
Asked whether the appeal had been filled already, he said:
“It’s in the process of being filled today (yesterday). I can’t say
conclusively, but it’s in the process of being filled and the effect is to
suspend that.”
A member from Rushwaya-led executive, Lindi Mpofu
challenged Kaguru to show the miners his achievements in the past 15 years he
has been in office. Newsday
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