Source: Tsvangirai case struck off the roll – DailyNews Live
Tendai Kamhungira 19 August 2017
HARARE – MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai is off the hook after the High
Court on Wednesday struck off the roll an application by Harare man
Moreprecision Muzadzi, who is seeking $50 000 compensation for reportedly
offering consultancy services to the veteran politician ahead of the 2013
elections.
Justice Felistas Chatukuta threw out the charges against the former prime
minister, a ruling hailed as a major victory by the vocal opposition
leader and critic of President Robert Mugabe.
Tsvangirai had been accused of entering into a verbal agreement with
Muzadzi sometime in 2013 together with the MDC leader’s co-defendants,
Manatsa Tsvangirai, who is the MDC leader’s brother and the party’s deputy
national chairperson Morgen Komichi, for him to negotiate with other
opposition party leaders to form a coalition with Tsvangirai.
But Judge Chatukuta struck the case off the roll, which had taken long
after a string of postponements. The reasons for the judgment are not yet
ready.
Tsvangirai and his co-defendants had not responded to the application,
which forced Muzadzi, who is the president of the little-known Voice of
the People opposition party, to approach the court early this month
seeking a default judgment.
“To date the defendants (Tsvangirai, Manatsa and Komichi) have failed to
enter an appearance to defend; moreover the defendants are woefully out of
time for entering the appearance to defend as stipulated by the rules of
this honourable court,” Muzadzi said in his founding affidavit.
“The plaintiff (Muzadzi) hereby applies that; the summons having been
issued on June 9, 2017, the first, second and third defendants having been
duly served on June 15, 2017, the defendants not having entered an
appearance to defend timeously, judgment may be entered for the plaintiff
as claimed in the summons for $7 800, Nissan NP 200 and damages in the sum
of $50 000 together with prescribed interest rate.”
Muzadzi told the court that Tsvangirai and the other defendants failed to
honour their side of the bargain, forcing him to seek legal recourse.
“In accordance with the terms of the agreement plaintiff duly rendered his
services in drafting a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and negotiated
with defendants and other political party leaders that they were going to
field Tsvangirai as the sole presidential candidate against Zanu PF,” he
said.
“Plaintiff and partner successfully negotiated with the following party
leaders to support the first defendant’s presidential candidate; Simba
Makoni (MKD), Dumiso Dabengwa (Zapu), Margaret Dongo (Zud), and 15
others.”
The court heard that in alleged breach of the said agreement, Tsvangirai
and his colleagues reneged on their promise but instead unleashed some
people who then attacked Muzadzi and Kisinoti Mukwazhe, president of the
Zimbabwe Development Party.
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