daniel chigunwe
Eddie Chikamhi
Zimpapers Sports Hub
THE urgent chamber application made by aspiring ZIFA presidential candidate Temba Mliswa will be heard by the High Court in Harare this morning.
Mliswa, who was among the five candidates that were disqualified by the ZIFA Electoral Committee after falling short of the association’s eligibility criteria, is challenging the election process as well as the validity and legitimacy of the new ZIFA statutes that are being used to run the upcoming ballot. The court application was originally pencilled to be heard last Tuesday in Bulawayo but has been transferred to Harare before Justice Tawanda Chitapi, who is handling a case of a similar nature lodged by another disqualified ZIFA presidential candidate, Walter Magaya. The Judicial Services Commission confirmed Mliswa’s court application will be heard this morning. “Take notice that the above urgent chamber application will be heard and determined by the High Court of Zimbabwe at Harare before the Honourable Mr. Justice Chitapi J on Tuesday, the 21st day of January 2025, at 09:30 or so soon thereafter as counsel may be heard,” reads the court notice.
Mliswa is seeking to stop the watershed elections set for this Saturday in Harare as he argues the statutes being used to run the process are defective. Through his legal advisors, MD Hungwe Attorneys At Law, he has cited ZIFA as the first respondent and the Sports and Recreation Commission as well as the Minister of Sports, Recreation, Arts, and Culture as second and third respondents. Mliswa argues that the ZIFA Congress that voted for constitutional amendments last October had no man-date to do so since their term of office had expired; hence the process was null and void.
“Further take notice that the following grounds shall be relied upon in the application:
1. The ZIFA Congress delegates who met at the Annual General Meeting of the first respondent on the 18th of October 2024 and thereat passed the resolution to adopt the amended ZIFA constitution were devoid of authority to so act by virtue of some of the congress delegates’ terms of office having expired in the period preceding the Annual General Meeting.
2. The amended ZIFA Constitution, having been adopted by a body lacking in requisite mandate and authority, is a product of grossly flawed and irregular proceedings and therefore a legal nullity, and no lawful process can emanate therefrom.
3. The second respondent assented to and adopted the Amended ZIFA Constitution on the 7th of November 2024 in spite of the lack of authority or mandate regarding the congress delegates of the first respondent and thus adopted a Constitution that was a product of a grossly flawed process, which adoption is in that score equally a legal nullity and ought to be vacated.
4. The subsequent electoral processes instigated by the First Respondent through the ZIFA Normalisation Committee pursuant to a constitution that was irregularly adopted is equally flawed, as they is premised on a Constitution whose existence is a legal nullity by dint of having been adopted by a body lacking the requisite authority and mandate.
FURTHER TAKE notice that the following relief is sought herein:
1. Nullification of ALL resolutions purportedly passed at the ZIFA Annual General Meeting of 18 October 2024, including but not limited to the nullification of the resolution to adopt the current amended ZIFA constitution.
2. Nullification of the subsequent assent and adoption of the amended ZIFA constitution by the Second Respondent on the 7th of November 2024.
3. Nullification of all the electoral processes of the first respondent that followed the purported adoption of the amended ZIFA constitution and which have been instigated and carried out in terms of the same.
4. An order directing the first respondent to first cause the regulation of the structures of its affiliates that feed members who constitute the congress delegates of the first respondent at the ZIFA Annual General Meeting and thereafter cause the convening of an Annual General Meeting for the proper adoption of the amended ZIFA constitution and any other business First Respondent may so wish to conduct at such Annual General Meeting within 90 days of this order, therefore paving the way for a fresh electoral process for office bearers of the first respondent.
5. Costs on the scale of attorney and client.”
