Axed minister haunts Mugabe

via Axed minister haunts Mugabe – Southern Eye. 11 July 2015 By Everson Mushava

Former Mwenezi East MP Kudakwashe Bhasikiti yesterday approached the Supreme Court after the High Court on Thursday threw out a challenge against his expulsion from Zanu PF by President Robert Mugabe.

High Court judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu had ruled that Bhasikiti prematurely brought his matter to the High Court without exhausting domestic remedies provided for in the Zanu PF constitution.

But in a notice of appeal filed by Bhasikiti’s lawyer Tendai Biti to the Supreme Court, the former Masvingo Provincial Affairs minister said he was appealing against the entire judgment by Justice Bhunu.

He said the basis of his appeal was that the court erred in ignoring the fact that he approached the High Court because of its role as a constitutional court.

“The court a quo grossly erred as a question of law and fact in holding that the appellant had a duty to exhaust domestic remedies in this matter by way of appealing to the central committee of the second respondent (Zanu PF),” Bhasikiti said.

Bhasikiti was expelled from the fractious Zanu PF in May together with several party stalwarts on allegations of working with former Vice-President Joice Mujuru in an alleged plot to oust Mugabe.

He was subsequently recalled from Parliament.

“Further, the court erred in holding that the application was premature when the respondents had acted with speed and denied appellant any due recourse to any remedy by, for instance, expelling him from Parliament and not notifying him of the expulsion,” he said.

“Put simply, the court erred and arrived at a decision which in itself is a breach of the appellant’s right to be heard, the applicant’s right to due process of the law and the applicant’s right to constitutionalism.”

The former Mwenzezi East MP has been in and out of court battling Mugabe and Zanu PF over his dismissal and recall from Parliament.

Bhasikiti also has a pending urgent chamber application where he is suing Mugabe for contempt of court after the Zanu PF leader declared a date for the sitting of the nomination court before his case had been concluded by the courts.

In his notice of appeal, Bhasikiti argued that he had no legal standing to respect the Zanu PF constitution when Mugabe himself had breached it by firing him without following due processes.

He said Zanu PF did not even bother telling him of his recall from Parliament.

“Indeed, the court grossly erred in finding against the appellant on the basis that he had not respected the respondents’ own constitution, when the respondent themselves had blatantly failed to respect their own constitution in respect of due process,” Bhasikiti said.

He said the central committee would have been a biased platform to deal with his matter because of factionalism.

The politburo, Bhasikiti argued, was a secretariat of the central committee and seeking internal remedy was impossible because he would be facing the same people who expelled him.