Form No. 29C/Provisional Order/Rule 246 0277250
IN THE HIGH COURT OF ZIMBABWE CASE NO: HC 2199/20 HELD AT HARARE
In the matter between:- MOVEMENT FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE ALLIANCE (MDC ALLIANCE) APPLICANT And MINISTER OF JUSTICE LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS RESPONDENT MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
2nd RESPONDENT RESPONDENT PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ZIMBABWE
3rd RESPONDENT PROVISIONAL ORDER TO: THE RESPONDENTS TAKE NOTE that, on the 7th day of May 2020 the Honourable Mrs Justice Munangati-Manongwa sitting at Harare issued a provisional order.
The annexed Chamber application, affidavit/s 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 opposing affidavit’s, with the Registrar, of the High Court at Harare within ten (10) days after the date of which this provisional order was served upon you.
You will also have to serve a copy of the Notice of Opposition and affidavits on the applicant at the address for service specified in the application. If you do not file an opposing affidavit within the period specified above, this matter will be set down for hearing in the High Court at Harare without further notice to you and will be dealt with as an unopposed application for confirmation of the provisional order.
If you wish to have the provisional order changes or set aside sooner than the rules of Court normally allow and can show good cause for this, you should approach the applicant/applicant’s legal practitioner to agree, in consultation with the Registrar, on a suitable hearing date. If this cannot be agreed or there is a great urgency, you make a Chamber application, on notice to the applicant, for directions from a judge as to when the matter can be argued.
TERMS OF FINAL ORDER SOUGHT
That you show cause to this Honourable Court why a final order should not be made in the following terms:- 1. It is ordered that:- i. Within 7 days from the date of service of this order, the It respondent, shall pay into the applicant’s account number 1036938297 held A Steward Bank, Al amounts due to the applicant in terms of the Political Parties Finance Act Chapter 2:11 in the sum of $7 492 500.00. ii. 3rd and 2nd respondents shall pay cost of suit.
TERMS OF INTERIM RELIEF
The and 2nd respondents be and are hereby interdicted, stopped and barred from disbursing the sum of $7 492 500.00 due to the applicant in terms of the Political Party Finance Act or any other amount thereof, to any party other than the MDC Alliance.
SERVICE OF THE ORDER
That the applicant’s legal practitioners are given authority to serve the order by way of delivery to the respondent’s legal practitioners.
BY THE JUDGE
The ministers of justice and finance have been barred by a court from disbursing Z$7.5 million due to the MDC Alliance under the Political Parties (Finances) Act as a battle for the party’s leadership intensifies.
Justice Munangati-Manongwa on Friday granted an interim order sought by the MDC Alliance blocking the disbursement of the money to a faction led by Thokozani Khupe, which has staked a claim for the leadership of the party.
“The 1st (justice minister) and 2nd (finance minister) respondents be and are hereby interdicted, stopped and barred from disbursing the sum of $7,492,500 due to the applicant in terms of the Political Parties (Finance) Act or any other amount thereof, to any party other than the MDC Alliance,” the order said.
The MDC Alliance – which is owed the money based on its share of the vote from the July 2018 elections – is seeking a final order compelling Justice Minister Ziyambo Ziyambi to pay the amount into its account.
Khupe stood in the last election representing the MDC-T party, polling just over 45,000 votes while Nelson Chamisa, who led the MDC Alliance, polled over 2.1 million votes, according to official election results.
The Supreme Court however ruled at the end of March this year that Nelson Chamisa’s assumption of the leadership of what was then known as the MDC-T party in February 2018, upon the death of founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was irregular.
Tsvangirai had broken the party constitution by elevating Chamisa and Elias Mudzuri to be his deputies in a triumvirate with Khupe, which positioned Chamisa within striking distance of the leadership upon the leader’s death, the court added.
The court ordered an extra-ordinary congress to be held within three months to elect a new leadership, while restoring the party leadership that was in position at the time of Tsvangirai’s death.
Khupe, whose party got two MPs, has now claimed leadership of the MDC Alliance which took part in the last election, despite entering the election as MDC-T leader herself.
MDC Alliance lawyers say the Supreme Court ruling was moot and therefore unenforceable.
Comparing the case to that of a man who seeks promotion at his workplace but dies before a court eventually rules in his favour, Chamisa’s lawyer Advocate Thabani Mpofu said:
“That judgment will not be worth the paper it is written on not because the authority of the court is being disdained, but because the court speaks to an impossibility. It speaks to the past as though it spoke to the present. The proverbial horse has bolted. The company no longer has anyone to promote even with all the will in the world.