Robert Zhuwao, a nephew of the late former President Robert
Mugabe, never had a claim to subdivision 4 of Cockington Farm that was
allocated to Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Minister Kirsty Coventry, the
High Court ruled yesterday.
The ruling follows an application by Zhuwao seeking a
spoliation and prohibitory interdict against the minister, that is an order
granting him possession of the land he said was in dispute and a ban on the
minister using that land.
The second basis for rejecting the urgent application was
that Zhuwao, at present in Zambia, made the affidavit describing his eviction,
yet he had not been present, although his farm manager, who lives in the area,
was present, but was not invited to make the affidavit nor testify in court.
Zhuwao was allocated subdivision 1 of Cockington Farm in
Zvimba, yet Minister Coventry was allocated subdivision 4 on the same
Cockington Farm, a quite different area.
The High Court therefore struck the matter off the roll
since there could be no dispute between Zhuwao and Minister Coventry.
Zhuwao lost the farm allocated to him in December 2004
after his offer letter was withdrawn last year in March on the basis that he
had abandoned it since 2011.
After being notified of the withdrawal of the farm by the
Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement, Zhuwao was
invited to make representations within seven days of the withdrawal.
He submitted his representations in writing in April last
year. However, the Government confirmed the withdrawal of the offer letter in
September and advised Zhuwao to wind up operations and vacate the farm.
Aggrieved by this result, Zhuwao challenged the propriety
of the Minister of Lands’ decision and that matter, the withdrawal of the offer
letter, is pending in courts.
But based on the facts that Zhuwao never had an offer
letter for the farm allocated to Minister Coventry, Justice Tawanda Chitapi
yesterday struck Zhuwao’s application off the roll with costs as there was no
dispute to talk about in this second matter.
In his ruling, Justice Chitapi noted that there was no
double allocation of land as Minister Coventry’s offer letter had nothing to do
with the land offered to Zhuwao.
“There is therefore no basis for dispute as to who was
allocated what piece of land,” he said.
Zhuwao, who claimed to be hospitalised in Zambia, filed a
notarised affidavit that he executed in Lusaka on 5 June — narrating the
invasion of his farm in first person yet he was not present.
He stated that the facts he deposed to were the best of his
knowledge and belief, true and correct in material respects, but Justice
Chitapi found he did not state the basis of such knowledge and belief.
The judge sought an explanation from Zhuwao’s lawyer Mr
Jabu Gwatipedza on why he placed hearsay evidence before the court to support
the application, yet the farm manager who supposedly witnessed the acts of
spoliation and could have filed the affidavit since he had personal knowledge
of what took place.
Mr Gwatipedza could not give satisfactory explanation. The
lawyer first stated that the application was hurriedly made and there was no
time to record an affidavit from the farm manager.
The judge also asked the lawyer who between Zhuwao and the
farm manager was easier to record an affidavit from since Zhuwao was
hospitalised in Zambia and the farm manager being less than 100 kilometres
away.
In the end, Justice Chitapi found there was no admissible
evidence on which Zhuwao’s application was anchored and that it was replete
with hearsay evidence hence could not make a strong case that Minister Coventry
had committed the acts of lawlessness he complained of. Herald
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