via RadioVop Zimbabwe – Excommunicated Kunonga Withdraws Case,Ordered To Pay Costs 08/11/2013
Former Anglican Church leader Archbishop Nolbert Kunonga, has since been dumped by his lawyers from Samkange and Venturas law firm, a move which forced him to withdraw a High Court civil matter where he was seeking to have the church’s properties indigenised.
Following the withdrawal, the court ordered Kunonga to pay costs of the civil suit at a higher scale.
In December last year,excommunicated Kunonga filed an application seeking to have the Anglican Church’s properties indigenised under the country’s indigenisation laws following the Supreme Court’s ruling that stripped him of control of the properties.
The Supreme Court had ruled that the Bishop Chad Gandiya-led Church of the Central Province of Africa (CPCA) was the rightful owner of the Anglican Church’s properties and not Kunonga and his breakaway faction. This did not go down well with Kunonga who then sought to have CPCA properties indigenised.
However, the matter was supposed to be heard at the High Court yesterday, but Kunonga, who was absent at the court, is said to have given a notice of withdrawal of the matter which notice Justice Maxwell Takuva ruled as defective.
“The application for exception is upheld with costs on a higher scale in view of the defective nature of the notice of withdrawal,” Justice Takuva said ruling in favour of CPCA which was represented by Advocate Thabani Mpofu.
The ruling by Justice Takuva followed an application by Mpofu, who told the court in his submissions that Kunonga’s lawyers had renounced urgency and that his “purported” notice of withdrawal was defective.
“Plaintiff (Kunonga) issued a purported notice of withdrawal and the withdrawal is defective in nature in that it does not make a tender for wasted costs and we therefore, do not accept it in its form.
“I, therefore, move that the exception be allowed with costs on the higher scale,” Mpofu said. NewsdzeZimbabwe
COMMENTS
The things of God can not be mixed or confused with politics. The archbishop knows this too well. You can go to the best court of the land and pay huge amounts to lawyers but Jesus will just speak a word.
Kunonga was an evil man who mixed politics with church, stole church properties and demonised the faithful. His true boss Mugabe who had the police not allow Anglicans to worship without penalty seems no longer has interest and dumped him!