Zim court gags Mpofu
Minister fails to give clearance
SA’s duo of top legal minds were yesterday reduced to spectators in court as they did not have the required clearance from Zimbabwe’s justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi to stand and address the nine justices of the country’s Constitutional Court.
Advocates Dali Mpofu and Tembeka Ngcukaitobi are in Harare to represent their client Nelson Chamisa of the MDC Alliance, who is challenging the results of the presidential election.
Led by chief justice Luke Malaba, the nine judges are expected to deliver the last word on the outcome of the presidential results of the July 30 election tomorrow.
The incumbent president Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared winner of the election by 50.8% of the vote by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. Chamisa got 44.3% of the vote.
Speaking to Sowetan’s sister publication Times Select on Wednesday after the court had gone into recess, Mpofu expressed disappointment they were unable to speak before it.
He said the legal team had a plan going into the court session on Wednesday, with Chamisa having emphasised that those in his legal corner who had been involved in drafting his founding affidavit and heads of argument should also take a central role when the court sits.
Mpofu and Ngcukaitobi have been involved in the legal process from the onset. They were in Harare on Friday to help “prepare” filing their client’s head of arguments.
“… So it does affect planning when, at the last minute, it becomes clear that plan is not going to work. Until last night [Tuesday] we didn’t sleep at all on the basis that this morning [Wednesday] sanity would prevail. Obviously, that did not happen … the politicians had decided not to grant us permission.”
Mpofu said what was even more “disturbing” about the incident was that Ziyambi was an interested party in the matter. Ziyambi was Mnangagwa’s chief election agent during the election.
“The prejudice is not ours, we are professionals. The prejudice is with the client who has been denied the counsel of his choice,” said Mpofu.
In court, the MDC Alliance put before the judges its position that working in cahoots, Mnangagwa and the electoral commission had given him an undeserved win. It claimed, among other things, that votes were inflated and there were ghost polling stations set up.
Chamisa wants the court to set aside the election results and order a run-off, claiming his rival Mnangagwa was unable to get the required 50% + 1 threshold to avoid a run-off vote.
In his submission, advocate Lewis Uriri for Mnangagwa said there was no legal basis for the court to even hear the matter as it had been lodged out of time. It is on the technicalities of the case that Zanu-PF is seeking for it to be thrown out.