MINISTER GRABS WIDOW'S PLOT, CASE REMOVED FROM ROLL

A High Court case in which Minister of State for Masvingo, Ezra Chadzamira allegedly bulldozed into a Masvingo widow’s plot in Morningside and started building his private school has been removed from the roll for defective papers.

Justice Helena Charewa removed the case at the High Court in Masvingo during a Pre-Trial-Conference (PTC) yesterday.

Justice Charewa noted that all concerned parties didn’t have their papers in order. The parties had sought a postponement of the case to May 15, 2025.

Removed from the roll means that a matter has been formally taken off the court’s list of cases pending hearing. It’s often used when a case is postponed indefinitely. The case may be re-enrolled at a later date, often after the issues that caused the removal have been addressed.

A PTC is a meeting held before trial, typically between the judge and attorneys to address various issues that need to be resolved before the trial can proceed. Parties can also discuss whether a case is going to go to trial or whether it can be resolved through a plea agreement.

Chadzamira, Masvingo City and its Housing Director, Minister of Local Government and Public Works and Chadzamira are respondents in the matter.

The widow of Farai Mutsetse Mazenge application was for Chadzamira to be stopped from further construction on the plot where she has a home and also keeps livestock and to have the politician evicted at once.

High Court Judge, Justice Sunsley Zisengwe recently granted an application allowing Masvingo City Council time to file its responding papers after missing a time frame in which it ought to have responded to Mutsetse’s application.

Mutsetse’s widow stated in her court papers that all papers pertaining to her property disappeared from a file kept at council offices and fortunately for her she had copies of the same file at home.

Mutsetse bought the property in 2009 and Chadzamira showed up and began building a private school at the property in 2024. Some of the documents that Mutsetse kept include water bills, rates, service and sewer charges that she has been paying for the last 16 years.

Chadzamira is claiming that he bought the plot from the Ministry of Local Government. Chadzamira also grabbed a mansion and a farm, Cresta Ibeka some 10km from Masvingo CBD along Mashava road from a then 66-year-old widow Yvonne Goddard who became homeless.  Masvingo Mirror

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