×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

Tsvangirai’s ‘coalition consultancy service’ lawsuit hearing today

News
LEADER of the Voice of the People party, Moreprecision Muzadzi’s court application seeking to compel MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai to pay him for consultancy services in the run-up to the 2013 harmonised elections, is now set to be heard today, two weeks after it had been removed from the High Court’s roll.

LEADER of the Voice of the People party, Moreprecision Muzadzi’s court application seeking to compel MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai to pay him for consultancy services in the run-up to the 2013 harmonised elections, is now set to be heard today, two weeks after it had been removed from the High Court’s roll.

BY CHARLES LAITON

Muzadzi approached the court on August 4 this year seeking a default judgment against Tsvangirai on the basis that he and his co-defendants, his brother Manatsa and MDC-T deputy national chairman Morgen Komichi, had failed to respond to the lawsuit he filed in June this year.

“To date the defendants (Tsvangirai, Manatsa and Komichi) have failed to enter an appearance to defend; moreover, the defendants are woefully out of the time period for entering the appearance to defend as stipulated by the rules of this honourable court,” Muzadzi said in his founding affidavit.

“The plaintiff (Muzadzi) hereby applies that: The summons having been issued on June 9, 2017, the first, second and third defendants having been duly served on June 15, 2017, the defendants not having entered an appearance to defend timeously, judgment may be entered for the plaintiff as claimed in the summons for $7 800, Nissan NP 200 and damages in the sum of $50 000 together with the prescribed interest rate.”

In the court papers, Muzadzi said sometime in 2013 he entered into a verbal agreement with Tsvangirai and his co-defendants in terms of which he was to negotiate with other opposition party leaders not to contest the elections, but to rally behind the MDC-T leader.

“In accordance with the terms of the agreement, plaintiff duly rendered his services in drafting a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and negotiated with defendants and other political party leaders that they were going to field Tsvangirai as the sole presidential candidate against Zanu PF,” he said.

“. . . Plaintiff and partner successfully negotiated with the following party leaders to support the first defendant’s presidential candidacy: Dr Simba Makoni (MKD), Dumiso Dabengwa (Zapu), Margret Dongo (ZUD) and 15 others.”

In alleged breach of the said agreement, Tsvangirai and his colleagues reneged on their promise and instead unleashed some people who then attacked Muzadzi and one Kisinoti Mukwazhe when they visited Tsvangirai’s residence in Highlands to collect his dues.