THE Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by the Obadiah Moyo-led faction of the National Council of the Disabled People of Zimbabwe (NCDPZ) seeking to unseat the executive in a bitter power struggle which started early this year.
Report by Our Senior Court Reporter
Moyo — who claims to be the new NCDPZ president after wresting power from the executive led by Farai Cherera and two others, Leonard Marange and Goliath Zinhumwe — approached the Supreme Court seeking to nullify a High Court order restoring Cherera and her executive into office.
High Court judge Justice Lawrence Kamocha had ruled in favour of Cherera and her executive in May and dismissed Moyo’s executive as illegitimate. However, Moyo and his colleagues invaded the NCDPZ premises, Freedom House in Bulawayo, and refused to leave the property, prompting Cherera’s group to lock them out, leading to sporadic violent scenes.
Moyo later appealed to the Supreme Court through his lawyers Victor Ruwomba and Nqobani Nyathi.
But the Supreme Court bench of Deputy Chief Justice Luke Malaba and Justices Anne-Mary Gowora and Yunus Omerjee sitting in Bulawayo on Monday, dismissed the appeal after the lawyers failed to comply with the set rules of appeal.
They said the appeal was defective and therefore a non-appeal, before they encouraged the NCDPZ to call for a congress than to resort to the courts wasting their meagre resources.
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“The incumbent executive had surpassed the four years stipulated by their constitution,” Malaba said.
“They should just sit down as the two parties and call for elections.
“We know they have no money to hold the congress, as they said, but people can even sit under a tree and elect a president.
“For disabled people to fight and come to court, wasting money which should empower them, is not called for.
“Although we can’t lecture people on how they should conduct themselves, sometimes people should just reason.”
Cherera and his executive were represented by Harare lawyer Alec Muchadehama.
