Businessman Farai Matsika suffered another blow after the Supreme Court threw out his application where he sought to snatch a 30% Croco Motors’ stake from his cousin Moses Chingwena.
Matsika sought condonation of late appeal, postponement, a
larger appeal bench and referral to the Constitutional Court.
“Whereupon, after reading the documents filed of record and
hearing counsel, it is ordered that:
“The preliminary point on jurisdiction raised by the
respondents be and is hereby upheld with costs.
“The court declines jurisdiction in this matter. Full
reasons for this order will follow in due course,” the three-member bench
comprising Justices Elizabeth Gwaunza, Joseph Musakwa and Hlekani Mwayera,
ruled.
The ruling came after Matsika in November last year
approached the Supreme Court seeking condonation for late filing of his court
papers.
Supreme Court judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu dismissed the
application, accusing Matsika of lack of honesty, prompting the businessman to
appeal against the ruling.
Croco Holdings’ lawyers, however, raised a preliminary
point challenging jurisdiction of the court.
The Supreme Court judges ruled that they had no jurisdiction
over a judgment by the same court.
In 2020, the High Court had no kind words for Matsika in
the shareholding wrangle, which he also lost with costs after ruling that he
had used forged documents.
In a hard-hitting judgement, High Court judge Owen Tagu
slapped Matsika and his firm Fairgold Investments (Private) Limited with costs
over his “dishonesty”.
“The applicants (in the High Court case) (Matsika and
Fairgold Investments) sought to seek relief from this court by fabricating
documents, a fabrication as amateurish as it is disrespectful,” Tagu said.
“But then, there was a method to this madness because even
the founding and answering affidavits lacked nothing in wounded pride and
dignity but contained nothing of substance.
“For that, there must be consequence to his pocket as the
only antidote in the hands of the court to show its displeasure at such a
brazen abuse of the process of the court.”
It emerged during the court hearing that Matsika was
initially employed as a chief executive officer by Croco Holdings, before his
employment was terminated in 2015.
He, however, told
the court that he holds 30% of issued shares in Croco Holdings through his
company Fairgold Investments.
Tagu dismissed Matsika’s application after ruling that he
had failed to justify how he had acquired the shares he claimed to own in Croco
Holdings. Standard
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