Musengezi finds company in ED challenge 

Source: Musengezi finds company in ED challenge -Newsday Zimbabwe

Sybeth Musengezi

ACADEMIC and Friends of Shabani, Mashava Mine Trust member Tichaona Mupasiri on Monday filed an application for a joinder in the case in which Zanu PF member Sybeth Musengezi is seeking to stop the party congress on the basis of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s lack of legitimacy.

Mupasiri said he agreed with Musengezi’s assertion that Zanu PF violated its constitution when it elevated Mnangagwa to power.

In his application, he cited Musengezi, Zanu PF, Mnangagwa and party leaders Obert Mpofu and Patrick Chinamasa, former Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko and former Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo and the Federation of Non-governmental Organisation Trust led by Goodson Nguni and Nguni as the first to ninth respondents.

His application is in terms of section 2 (2) of the Constitution, which allows him to apply to intervene in a matter under case HC5687/21, Musengezi versus Mnangagwa.

In December, he filed another application against Mnangagwa and lawyer Edwin Manikai alleging that the latter assisted the President to assume Zanu PF party presidency in 2017 after the late former President Robert Mugabe’s ouster.

The sheriff struggled to serve summons on the President, but Mupasiri received an opposing affidavit from Manikai’s law firm, instead of the Attorney-General’s office.

He submitted that in litigating cases of public interest, no one should be above the law to allow for exceptions in terms of accountability.

Mupasiri also said Manikai should have disclosed his interest in the matter.

“The court is compelled to determine if a person who was involved in three distinct unlawful ascendancies to power and authority — Shabani, Mashava Mine (SMM), Mujuru constitutional amendment and Mugabe army-assisted removal, should not be held accountable to bring the nation to his confidence on how he skilfully managed to overcome the legal and Constitutional limitations imposed on everyone,” he submitted.