Zimbabwe’s justice minister says applications by Nelson Chamisa’s South African lawyers to appear in Harare’s Constitutional Court this week arrived late and didn’t have supporting documents.
Source: SA lawyers: Zim justice minister says he got their applications too late | News24
Ziyambi Ziyambi told state ZBC radio on Monday that the applications arrived after he’d already left his office on Friday. He said he’d written to the lawyers to get them to send the information on Monday, but had only received documents for one of the lawyers – Advocate Jeremy Gauntlett.
“The others they didn’t respond and they didn’t give us anything,” Ziyambi said.
Two other advocates, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi and Dali Mpofu arrived in the country last week to join Nelson Chamisa’s legal team.
Chamisa has assembled a large team of lawyers, led by local advocate Thabani Mpofu, to present his election petition before the nine-member Constitutional Court on Wednesday.
He claims he was robbed of victory in the July 30 poll by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, which declared President Emmerson Mnangagwa the winner with 50.8% of the vote.
Brains and expertise
Chamisa’s spokesperson, Nkululeko Sibanda, played down the issue of the South Africans not getting permits.
“When we were talking to them we were clearly aware that the chances of them being allowed to operate in the country were very slim,” he told News24.
He said the MDC Alliance had hired the lawyers for their expertise and not necessarily to argue the case before the court.
“The brains and expertise don’t need a visa to operate in the country,” he added.
Live-streaming vs. broadcasting
The high-profile case will be broadcast live by state ZBC on Wednesday, the first time TV cameras and microphones will be allowed inside a Zimbabwean court to record proceedings.
The local chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa is Tuesday due to make an urgent application to allow live-streaming of the court case via social media.
In a statement, the media watchdog said live streaming would reach a wider audience than “traditional radio and television channels”.
COMMENTS
GUYS LETS BE TRANSPARENT HERE WHY SHOULD WE DENIE LAWYERS WHEN WE KNOW THAT WE ARE CLEAN. COME ON MANNN. LETS USE THE SIXTH SENCE THAT GOD GAVE US , TRULY SPEaking if i know that i am clean a thousand lawyers will set me free onlly the guilty are afraid. so please let the lawyers do their work and justice prevail.
no valid reason to deny these lawyers permits.the only reason is cowardice.
Sa is doing so much for zimbabweans.come on zanu pf.Ed was treated in RSA for so called poisoning.after bomb blast they get treated in Rsa.
Rsa is an the only real all weather friend of zim
Its pretty clear there is a lot to hide. I do not understand why these guys want to cling to power. They have made their contribution to change, they now must give way to allow for further changes that will benefit all Zimbabweans.
We are open business. While other countries allow one to get short term business visa at border – and we have millions across the border – we carefully consider who wants to do business here and the default is to make it as difficult as possible for anyone to do business. We only said we are open. We particularly want capital that we can subject to our laws and make it hard for anyone to defend, that includes getting skills to service/manage it, like we are doing here for all to see. We never said it is easy to do business here. And we have the war vets fully charged and on standby to do what they have always done before their grand children were even born, and will continue to do so successfully until their great-great grand children are grown up.