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Vendors suffer court blow

News
High Court judge Justice Felistus Chatukuta has dismissed an application by street vendors seeking to interdict the government from forcibly evicting them from undesignated vending sites in various cities and towns in the country.

High Court judge Justice Felistus Chatukuta has dismissed an application by street vendors seeking to interdict the government from forcibly evicting them from undesignated vending sites in various cities and towns in the country.

BY CHARLES LAITON

The ruling effectively gives local authorities the green light to proceed with evictions by Friday next week.

Last week, vendors heaved a sigh of relief after receiving reports that the judge had allegedly barred the government from forcibly evicting them without following due process.

But in her order after listening to submissions by the concerned parties, Justice Chatukuta simply ruled: “Application be and is hereby dismissed with no order as to costs.”

The vendors had approached the High Court in an urgent basis through the Zimbabwe Informal Sectors’ Organisation’s (Ziso) lawyer Chris Mhike following an ultimatum by Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development minister Ignatius Chombo to move out of central business districts by June 26 or face unspecified action.

In the urgent application the vendors had cited Chombo, Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi and Harare mayor Bernard Manyenyeni as the first, second and third respondents, respectively.

Council lawyer Charles Kwaramba confirmed receiving the order.

“I can confirm that the application was dismissed by the court. Of course, the parties had entered into some form of agreement, but it is not the parties which make court orders,” he said.

“When a court order is made, it is an order of the court since the court has the final say.

“The court in this case is not bound by what the parties prefer it must decide according to law.

“In this case, the court decided it could not grant what the parties wanted hence the dismissal of the application.”