By A Correspondent| The child-custody case of the controversial “pastor” turned businessman, Frank Buyanga took to a twist when he lost again in the High Court on Tuesday.
Buyanga was suing his girlfriend, Chantelle Muteswa for the custody of the couple’s only son.
Chantelle Muteswa’s lawyer, Munyaradzi Bwanya spoke to ZimEye just after coming out of court revealing that this “was an urgent chamber to stop the removal of the child from Zimbabwe.”
The development comes barely days after the business man had tried to get the mother of his child jailed over the same bone of contention.
High Court judge Justice Jacob Manzunzu ruled that there was no hurry in removing the child from the jurisdiction of the mother before conclusion of the matters before the courts.
“Please take note that on 19th day of June, 2019, the High Court sitting at Harare before the Honourable Mr Justice Manzunzu issued a provisional order as shown,” part of the order
read.
“The annexed chamber application, affidavit and documents were issued in support of the application for this provisional order.
“If you intend to oppose the confirmation of this provisional order, you will have to file a notice of opposition in form No 29B together with one or more opposition affidavits with the registrar of the High Court at Harare within 10 days after the date of which this provisional order and annexures were served upon you. You will also have to serve a copy of the notice
of opposition as affidavit/s on the applicant at the address for service specified in the application.
“According to Justice Manzunzu, Buyanga should show cause to the court why an “order in the following terms should not be granted: Execution of the magistrate court ruling in the matter
CCA205/18 be and is hereby stayed pending the determination of application for review in matter number HC4954/19. The opposing respondent to pay the costs of application.”
“Pending the return day it is hereby ordered that, respondent be and hereby ordered not to remove the minor child from Zimbabwe,” Justice Manzunzu ruled
Commenting on the court win, the popular Social Worker and women’s rights activist, Betty Makoni praised the lawyer while saying, “firstly, I would like to appload the work that has been done by the legal expert Mr Bwanya, who managed to secure an interim order so that Chantelle can have custody of her child. These cases as you know, they are painstaking in Zimbabwe. We are looking at situations where hundreds of women, are having their children taken away from them no maintenance paid, and just to think about the hustle of going through courts… is something that a woman doesn’t want to get herself into.
“So just to know that today there is victory, for a woman with the assistance of a good lawyer actually set a good precedence, because these cases are not just of child custody, these cases are of domestic violence, public violence, harassment, which leave a lot of women’s lives devastated, so I am glad the court has made a good decision.
“What I would like to strongly recommend to the court is we want to see the role of social workers…also to monitor the situation of the child, because normally when the High Court gives such good orders, when we go to family level, people [sometimes] also start…out of court settlements, or tacticks in order to take that child, so I think I am celebrating, this is victory.
“And I would like to say this is something positive about Zimbabwe’s courts given all the criticism that we give them… we want to see much more… women must be protected by the law, children must be protected by the law.”
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