mbulelo smpofu
Eddie Chikamhi, Zimpapers Sports Hub
ZIFA lawyer, Lovemore Madhuku yesterday emerged a relieved man after one of the two court bids to stop this week’s watershed election ended in his clients’ favour, when aggrieved presidential aspirant Temba Mliswa withdrew his urgent court interdict.
Madhuku, who was hired by Zifa last week to deal with the thorny court challenges raised by Mliswa and another disqualified candidate, Walter Magaya, successfully argued that the matter brought before Justice Chitapi yesterday was not urgent.
Mliswa and Magaya have been seeking a postponement of the elections set to be held at the Rainbow Towers in Harare this Saturday.
Despite yesterday’s victory, Zifa will be back at the High Court again tomorrow where Justice Chitapi is expected to give a determination on the challenge by Magaya, who claims he was unfairly disqualified for not attaching his O-level certificate in his nomination papers.
But Madhuku, who was flanked by long-serving Zifa lawyer,Chenaimoyo Gumiro, during the three-hour marathon proceedings yesterday, was elated, one hurdle had been cleared. This was after Mliswa and his counsel conceded they had filed their review application out of time.
Mliswa was challenging the election process as well as the validity and legitimacy of the new Zifa statutes adopted by Congress last October. The urgent review application was supposed to be filed within eight weeks, according to the statutes but the applicant deposited their papers after 11 weeks.
“After some three hours of argument, we were able to reach a position where Mliswa through his legal counsel conceded that the review application was out of time, which then makes the urgent chamber application not founded on that,” said Madhuku.
“For us Zifa, we are happy that at least one challenge is out of the way and that the next one will happen in two days,” he added, referring to the Magaya case, which is set to be finalised tomorrow.
Mliswa and his legal counsel had no choice but to withdraw the urgent application for review after it became clear it was filed outside of the stipulated time frame.
However, Justice Chitapi said Mliswa could still pursue the case but as a normal application.
“This application is withdrawn by consent and the applicant will pay the costs of the hearing,” said Justice Chitapi.
Mliswa’s lawyer, Musindo Hungwe, conceded their application had missed the accepted time frames.
“The outcome of the matter is that after argument and the issues raised in relation to the timeframe within which the main application for review was filed, it became clear that the application was filed a bit out of time, and we have made a confession to that effect,” he said.
“Given that concession and the need for condemnation in that aspect, we have considered that this present application be withdrawn. So, effectively, we have withdrawn the application, a decision, which has been accepted by the respondents. So that is the status of the case.”
Mliswa, who is among the five candidates that were disqualified by the Zifa Electoral Committee after falling short of the association’s eligibility criteria, conceded the urgent application had fallen away. “To me, it’s fair. The facts are there. We were out of time, figures don’t lie,” said Mliswa.
“One of the greatest things about life is that when you have been outdone, you must concede. My lawyer remains my lawyer, he’s a great lawyer, but there were some technicalities, which came through, which we didn’t expect.
“As a result, I had to make a decision. The judge asked my lawyer and myself to go out and talk in terms of the way forward.
However, the former Norton legislator vowed to continue pursuing the merits of the case in the courts.
Mliswa is arguing that the Zifa Congress that amended the constitution had no mandate to do that since their term of office had expired in 2022.
As a result, he is seeking the nullification of all the electoral processes as well as all resolutions passed at the October 18 Congress, “including but not limited to the nullification of the resolution to adopt the current Amended Zifa Constitution.” “This fight is not about me, it’s not about you, it’s about football,” Mliswa said yesterday.
“But even if you know the elections are bigger, I’ve entrusted whoever is coming in to be the (Zifa) president to ensure that they regularise (the constitution). That I’ll repeat, they regularise. So, the main application remains. This was an urgent application for an interdict. The main application remains… Football has won, no one has lost,” said Mliswa.
