Mujuru rekindles bond notes fight

OPPOSITION Zimbabwe People First leader Joice Mujuru has kept her anti-bond notes fight alive, with the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) yesterday inviting her to submit her heads of arguments in the matter where she is challenging the legality of the surrogate currency.

Source: Mujuru rekindles bond notes fight – NewsDay Zimbabwe December 30, 2016

by Everson Mushava

The ConCourt has given Mujuru a 15-day ultimatum to submit her heads of argument in “terms of Practice Direction No 2 of 2013”.

The submission of heads of argument will enable the ConCourt to set a date on which Mujuru’s challenge would be heard before a full bench.

“In terms of Practice Direction No 2 of 2013, the applicant is required to file heads of argument within 15 days from the date of service of the letter,” the letter from the ConCourt registrar read.

“In terms of paragraph 9(11), the respondent is required within 10 days of receiving the applicant’s heads of argument to file with the registrar its heads of argument. Please not that if you fail to comply with the above, the application shall be regarded as abandoned and shall be deemed to have been dismissed.”

Four months ago, Mujuru approached the ConCourt challenging the introduction of bond notes, but the court ruled that her contestation was premature because the surrogate currency was not yet in circulation.

The court advised her to wait and file her challenge after the notes had hit the streets.

Government last month introduced bond notes to ease the cash shortages and Reserve Bank governor John Mangudya last week revealed that about $29 million worth of the currency was already in circulation.

In her court challenge, Mujuru cited President Robert Mugabe, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa, Mangudya and Attorney-General Prince Machaya as respondents.

Several citizens, including businessman Freddy Mutandah, have also approached the courts seeking to block the introduction of the bond notes, arguing the move was a subtle way of bringing back the long-discarded Zimbabwe dollar.