Madhuku, who
was hired by ZIFA last week to deal with the thorny court challenges raised by
Mliswa and another disqualified candidate, Walter Magaya, successfully argued
that the matter brought before Justice Tawanda Chitapi was not urgent.
Mliswa and
Magaya have been seeking a postponement of the elections scheduled for the
Rainbow Towers in Harare on Saturday.
Despite
yesterday’s victory, ZIFA will be back at the High Court again tomorrow, where
Justice Chitapi is expected to make a determination on the challenge by Magaya.
The Yadah Stars
president claims he was unfairly disqualified for not attaching his O’ Level
certificate in his nomination papers.
But Madhuku,
who was flanked by long-serving ZIFA lawyer Chenaimoyo Gumiro during the
three-hour marathon proceedings yesterday, was elated that one hurdle in the
bids to derail the polls had been cleared. This was after Mliswa and his
counsel conceded they had filed their review application out of time.
Mliswa was
challenging the election process as well as the validity and legitimacy of the
new ZIFA statutes adopted by Congress on October 18 last year.
The urgent
review application was supposed to be filed within eight weeks, according to
the statutes, but the applicant deposited their papers after 11 weeks.
“After some
three hours of argument, we were able to reach a position where Mliswa, through
his legal counsel, conceded that the review application was out of time, which
then makes the urgent chamber application not founded on that,” said Madhuku.
“For us ZIFA,
we are happy that at least one challenge is out of the way and that the next
one will happen in two days,” he added, referring to the Magaya case.
Mliswa and his
legal counsel had no choice but to withdraw the urgent application for review
after it became clear it was filed outside of the stipulated time frame.
However,
Justice Chitapi said Mliswa could still pursue the case as a normal court
application.
“This
application is withdrawn by consent, and the applicant will pay the costs of
the hearing,” said Justice Chitapi.
Mliswa’s
lawyer, Musindo Hungwe, conceded their application had missed the accepted time
frames.
“The outcome of
the matter is that after argument and the issues raised in relation to the time
frame with-in which the main application for review was filed, it became clear
that the application was filed a bit out of time, and we have made a confession
to that effect,” he said.
“Given that
concession and the need for condemnation in that aspect, we have considered
that this present application be withdrawn. So effectively we have withdrawn
the application, a decision that has been accepted by the respondents.
“So, that is
the status of the case.”
Mliswa, who is
among the five candidates that were disqualified by the ZIFA Electoral
Committee after falling short of the association’s ethics and eligibility
criteria, conceded his application had fallen away.
“To me it’s
fair. The facts are there. We were out of time; figures don’t lie,” said
Mliswa.
“One of the
greatest things about life is that when you have been outdone, you must
concede. My lawyer remains my lawyer; he’s a great lawyer, but there were some
technicalities that came through that we didn’t expect.
“As a result, I
had to make a decision. The judge asked my lawyer and myself to go out and talk
in terms of the way forward: do we proceed with the arguments that have been
put forth and the technicalities, basically out of time, to instruct my lawyer
to withdraw the case?
However, the
former Norton legislator indicated he would now pursue the matter via a normal
application.
Mliswa is
arguing that the ZIFA Congress, which the constitution had no mandate to do
that since their term of office had expired in 2022.
This is also
despite the fact FIFA granted an extension to the life of Congress as part of
the normalisation process and the ZIFA reform bid.
Mliswa still
maintained that it was an illegal Congress whose resolutions, including all the
electoral processes, were a nullity.
“This fight is
not about me; it’s not about you; it’s about football.
“But even if,
you know, the elections are bigger, I’ve entrusted whoever is coming in to be
the (ZIFA) president to ensure that they regularise (the constitution). That
I’ll repeat, they regularise.
“So, the main
application remains. This was an urgent application for an interdict. The main
application remains . . . Football has won, no one has lost.
“But in
football, we need to have people who will lead it with credibility, who
understand the constitution, and who will come up with a better constitution.
Our constitution is in a mess.
“And again, the
sooner elections are held, the better,” said Mliswa. Herald
Muchina 
Abdullah Amir 
