Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) president Henrietta Rushwaya won the court challenge against the Zvishavane-Mberengwa Mining Association (ZMMA) which was filed as an urgent chamber application seeking to bar her from representing the interests of ZMF after she had appealed to the Supreme Court against the High Court order which stripped her of the ZMF presidency.
Rudairo Mapuranga
On April 16, 2019, ZMMA applied for the urgent application seeking to block Rushwaya from acting as the body’s president until a judgement is passed by the Supreme Court.
However, in his judgement Bulawayo High court judge, Justice Martin Makonese dismissed the application as urgent and blasted the applicant for not doing their homework before filing the application.
“It is my view that the application before me is not urgent. In any event, the order sought in the draft order is not competent as it is not supported by the averments in the founding affidavit. In his submissions, Mr. Tavengwa, appearing for the applicant sought to argue that the application for leave to execute pending appeal was not being pursued at this stage and that the only relief sought is for an interdict. It was clear that not much thought was put in preparing and filing this application. The application in its present form is fatally defective” said Justice Makonese.
Justice Makonese said that the applicant’s behavior is abuse and mockery to court processes and is not be encouraged because it wastes the court’s time. The Justice also said that the applicant was supposed to compensate the respondent for all value cost due to the court challenge.
“The applicant indicates that this court must grant an interdict essentially regarding the same dispute. This approach smacks of an abuse of the court process. Such conduct should be discouraged. The respondent has been put out of pocket in opposing this claim. Respondent is entitled to recover their costs in full, ” said Justice Makonese.
The high court judge dismissed the court application by ZMMA with costs.
“In the result, the application is dismissed with costs on an attorney and client scale” Justice Makonese declared.