daniel chigunwe
Eddie Chikamhi
Zimpapers Sports Hub
ZIFA lawyer Lovemore Madhuku was a relieved man yesterday 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 High Court application for an 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 Tawanda Chitapi was not urgent.
Mliswa and Magaya have been seeking a postponement of the elections scheduled for the Rainbow Towers in Harare on Saturday.
Despite yesterday’s victory, ZIFA will be back at the High Court again tomorrow, where Justice Chitapi is expected to make a determination on the challenge by Magaya.
The Yadah Stars president 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 that one hurdle in the bids to derail the polls 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 on October 18 last year.
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.
Mliswa and his legal counsel had no choice, but to withdraw the urgent application for review after it became clear it was filed outside the stipulated time frame.
However, Justice Chitapi said Mliswa could still pursue the case as a normal court 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“This application is withdrawn by consent, and the applicant will pay the costs of the hearing,” said Justice Chitapi.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 time frame with-in 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 that has been accepted by the respondents.
“So, that is the status of the case.”
Mliswa, who is among five candidates that were disqualified by the ZIFA Electoral Committee after falling short of the association’s ethics and eligibility criteria, conceded his 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 that came through that 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: do we proceed with the arguments that have been put forth and the technicalities, basically out of time, to instruct my lawyer to withdraw the case?”
However, the former Norton legislator indicated he would now pursue the matter via a normal application.
Mliswa was arguing that the ZIFA Congress, which amended the constitution, had no mandate to do that since their term of office had expired in 2022.
This is also despite the fact FIFA granted an extension to the life of Congress as part of the normalisation process and the ZIFA reform bid.
Mliswa still maintained that it was an illegal Congress whose resolutions, including all the electoral processes, were a nullity.
“This fight is not about me; it’s not about you; it’s about football.
“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.
“But in football, we need to have people who will lead it with credibility, who understand the constitution, and who will come up with a better constitution. Our constitution is in a mess.
“And again, the sooner elections are held, the better,” said Mliswa.
