Two Zanu PF MPs lose parliamentary seats

Two Zanu PF MPs lose parliamentary seats

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By Takunda Maodza

TWO Zanu PF legislators – Jaison Kokerai Machaya of Gokwe South and Elleck Mkandla, Gokwe North – have lost their seats after the Supreme Court upheld the nullification of the outcome of the 2000 parliamentary elections by the High Court.

MDC chief whip, Innocent Gonese, this week wrote to the Speaker of Parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa, urging him to declare the two Gokwe seats vacant.
Machaya and Mkandla defeated opposition MDC candidates Lameck Nkiwane Muyambi and Sibangani Mlandu in the elections.

Muyambi and Mlandu went on to file an application in the High Court seeking the nullification of the outcome of the election, claiming that it was marred by violence, which they attributed to the ruling party.

On January 15, 2003, High Court judge Justice Rita Makarau handed down a judgment in favour of the MDC legislators. Machaya and Mkandla, through their lawyer Ngoni Ruzengwe of Ziumbe and Mtambanengwe Legal Practitioners, appealed against the ruling on January 31, 2003.

The Supreme Court Registrar then wrote a letter to Ruzengwe on May 20, 2004, calling upon him to file heads of argument with the court within 15 business days from the date of service of the letter. Ruzengwe did not file the heads of argument as required, leading the court to strike the appeal off its register.

However, the lawyer claimed that he failed to file the heads of arguments because he did not have access to some records from the High Court Registrar, which were necessary for that process.

“We then set out to get a copy of the record from the Registrar of the High Court but we were not availed with any, as we were told the records could not be located,” said Ruzengwe.

He said the records were necessary, as the late Advocate Matika, who had appeared for the ruling party legislators during trial, had not left clear records as to what had transpired.

“Accordingly, we failed to do our heads of argument in time. We have not received any copy of records from the High Court Registrar,” added Ruzengwe.

He said the only communication they received from the Registrar advised them that their appeal was regarded as abandoned.

“Accordingly, we submit that our failure to file heads of argument was neither deliberate failure nor was it due to tardiness on our part. Rather, it was due to administrative deficiencies at the High Court.

“We aver that this cannot be visited on our client,” added Ruzengwe.
The lawyer said his clients had bona fide cases, which if judged on merit, could prove that Makarau had erred in her findings that the appellants committed corrupt practices in the elections.

“Even if assuming (but not admitting) that acting through their agents the appellants committed corrupt practices in the election, she (Makarau) erred in finding that such corrupt or illegal practices were in such a nature as to warrant the invalidation of the applicants’ elections as evidence adduced did not reveal that the applicants or their agents failed and/or neglected to take any precautions to prevent the commission of the practices at the election,” argued Ruzengwe.

However, on October 14, 2004, the Supreme Court Registrar wrote a letter to Machaya and Mkandla’s lawyer stating that the appeal had been deemed to have had been abandoned.

“The Supreme Court Registrar’s letter on October 14 2004 . . . advised that the appeal had been deemed abandoned and thus dismissed and further that he was returning the record of appeal to your office to enable respondent to execute the High Court judgment,” read a letter from Ruzengwe to the Supreme Court Registrar, dated November 8, 2004, seeking the reinstatement of the appeal.

“As such, we request your office to put on hold the execution of the High Court judgment pending our client’s application for reinstatement of the appeal,” said Ruzengwe.

Gonese on Wednesday wrote a letter to speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa imploring him to declare Machaya and Mkandla’s seats vacant.
Read Gonese’s letter: “I refer to the appeals by the Honourable Jaison Kokerai Machaya and Honourable Elleck Mkandla of the Supreme Court, which have been dismissed for want of prosecution copies of the letters written by the Registrar of the Court to the lawyers of the said Honourable members, who were the appellants . . . It is evident that with the dismissal of the appeals, the previous High Court judgments stand and in terms of section 136 (3) (C) (1) of the Electoral Act, the ‘seats shall forthwith become vacant’.

“I write to you to invoke the mandatory provisions of the said Act and declare the seats of the two Honourable members vacant,” implored Gonese.
Daily Mirror
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