ZIMPF leader Joice Mujuru’s bid to challenge President Robert Mugabe’s powers to introduce bond notes yesterday hit a snag after the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) struck the matter off the roll.
BY CHARLES LAITON
This followed an application by Mugabe’s representative that the former VP’s application had not been properly brought before the court.
Mujuru had challenged the legality of a Presidential pronouncement that provided the legal framework for the introduction of bond notes as legal tender.
However, when the matter started and just before it could be heard on merits, Mugabe’s representative, Fortunate Chimbaru, raised a preliminary point, saying the constitutionality of the Presidential Powers Act was a question of interpretation.
Chimbaru said Mujuru ought to have first approached the High Court and made an application in terms of section 85 of the Constitution seeking to have the Act declared unconstitutional before approaching the ConCourt.
The full ConCourt bench, led by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, thereafter, disposed of the matter on a technicality and struck it off the roll, saying the reasons for its decision would follow in due course.
Justice Chidyausiku also said Mujuru was putting the cart before the horse, pointing out she should not have rushed to the ConCourt without exhausting all the available remedies.
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“The problem that we would get by getting into the merits of this case is drawing the line between what Parliament can delegate and what it cannot,” Justice Chidyausiku said.
In the application, Mujuru had cited Mugabe, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya and Attorney-General Prince Machaya as respondents.
