ZMF series, the court case that never ends
Zimbabwe Miners Federation executive has won yet another Supreme Court appeal to cement their role at the helm of the organization at least for now.
Rudairo Dickson Mapuranga
On the 26th of March this year, Ms Henrietta Rushwaya through a High court ruling declared by High Court judge Justice Nokuthula Moyo lost the presidency of the association after the judge declared that the results and proceedings of the elections which brought her to the helm of the small-scale miners’ body are unenforceable.
Rushwaya, then immediately appealed to the Supreme Court against the High Court order which stripped her of the presidential post of the miner’s body .Rushwaya had initially lost the High Court ruling because the Zvishavane Mberengwa Miners Association who challenged her position as the president of the body had sited that, High Court judge Justice Nicholas Mathonsi had granted a provisional order suspending the holding of elections on June 14 2018 but the federation went ahead with the elections which were won by Rushwaya.
After Rushwaya had appealed against the High Court ruling which stripped her of the presidency, Zvishavane Mberengwa Miners Association on April 16 2019, urgently appealed against the petition and Bulawayo High Court judge, Justice Martin Makonese dismissed the miners association’s urgent appeal as not urgent at all.
On 25 June, the Supreme Court then dismissed Rushwaya’s appeal on sitting irregularities which meant that Rushwaya lost her presidency again.
She then quickly applied for reinstatement of the case which took some time and the debate of her as the legitimate president was always being thrown around in the miners ‘streets.
Yesterday, Rushwaya finally won the Supreme Court application for the reinstatement of their appeal. Their case is now reinstated and back on the Supreme Court roll and according to the laws of the land, this means that Rushwaya is still the president of the small scale miners body.
The ZMF court series is one of the best entertainment scene in the mining industry which miners cannot afford to miss.
The politics in the association has left many amazed and astonished but the situation remains the same to all the miners around Zimbabwe. ZMF is still in the hands of Rushwaya and she has soldiered on amidst all the turmoil in the smallscale miners body.