BY CHARLES LAITON
MDC activist, Justice Dzingirayi, together with his lawyers, John Mugogo Attorneys have been slapped with costs on a high scale after their application seeking to bar Finance minister and Clerk of Parliament from giving the opposition party MPs their salaries, allowances and vehicles, was dismissed by the High Court.
Dzingirayi’s application came last year after MDC leader Nelson Chamisa lost a Constitutional Court (ConCourt) challenge against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s win in last year’s elections.
In his application, Dzingirayi, a registered voter in Kuwadzana East constituency, said he voted for the first time in his life for Chamisa, but was pained when the latter lost to Mnangagwa through a stolen vote.
He then filed an application seeking to bar the government from paying MDC Alliance MPs their salaries, allowances and the disbursement of their vehicles pending a determination of an appeal to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights by Chamisa.
He argued that paying the opposition MPs’ dues would legitimise Mnangagwa’s rule.
Dzingirayi’s matter was heard and determined by Justice Happius Zhou on June 28, 2019, who dismissed it on the basis that the activist did not have the locus standi to seek to bar the legislators from receiving their entitlements.
“After reading documents filed of record and hearing counsels, it is ordered that the application is dismissed for want of locus standi by the applicant; the costs shall be paid on the attorney-client scale by the applicant and his legal practitioners de bonis propriis the one paying the other to be absolved,” Justice Zhou ruled.
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Before the dismissal of his application, Dzingirayi said he was shocked that Mnangagwa managed to win the election because it was clear that the whole process had been marred by irregularities.
“It was clear as day that the election had been rigged and I was heartened when my president (Chamisa) lodged a petition with the ConCourt challenging the results of the presidential elections. I was certain that this challenge would succeed because the 114th respondent (Chamisa) indicated that the MDC had all the evidence to prove that the election had been stolen. I even saw his video talking of a heap of V11s that were going to prove the case,” Dzingirayi said in his founding affidavit. But his submissions did not find favour with the court.
