Reprieve for Kasukuwere Setback for Mangwana
High Court judge Justice David Mangota removed the matter from the roll of urgent matters, ordering each party to bear its own costs.
Lovedale Mangwana, who was seeking independent presidential candidate Saviour Kasukuwere’s disqualification from the race suffered a major setback when The High Court struck off the roll his application for execution of a judgment that was granted in his favour.
In his application filed earlier this month, Mangwana said he wanted the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to go ahead and print ballot papers without Kasukuwere’s name.
However, when the matter was heard in chambers on Monday, 24 July, High Court judge Justice David Mangota removed the matter from the roll of urgent matters, ordering each party to bear its own costs.
Kasukuwere’s lawyer Method Ndlovu told reporters after the ruling that the judge indicated that he could not decide on an issue that was still before a higher court. Said Ndlovu:
The court refused to hear Mangwana and removed the matter off the roll on the basis that there is no judicial economy at all for it to hear the matter today as the Supreme Court will finally deal with it on Thursday.
So the court was alive and aware of the fact that it is at risk of issuing an order which might be contradictory to what the Apex court of the land, the Supreme Court, will say in non-constitutional matters.
In a Twitter post, Kasukuwere’s chief election officer Jaqueline Sande said ZEC should now go ahead and print the presidential ballot paper with Kasukuwere’s name on it. She said:
The matter in which Lovedale Mangwana was seeking execution pending appeal was removed from the roll with no order as to cost.
[ZEC] there is nothing at this particular moment preventing you from printing the ballot with [Saviour Kasukuwere] as presidential candidate.
Mangwana’s application for execution came after Kasukuwere appealed to the Supreme Court against an earlier High Court judgment that blocked him from standing in next month’s elections as a presidential candidate.
Mangwana wanted the High Court order, blocking Kasukuwere from contesting, to be executed pending the Supreme Court appeal.
