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Fidelis Munyoro
FORMER Cabinet Minister Ignatius Chombo has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court challenging a High Court decision rejecting his petition to stop Government from reducing the size of his farm.
In a judgment handed down last week, the High Court Commercial Division declined to grant Chombo’s application challenging the downsizing of his 3 099ha farm to the normal standard size for his ecological zone and reallocating the remainder to several others.
Justice Jacob Manzunzu ruled that Chombo’s application was not a proper case for the court to exercise its discretion in favour of granting the declaratory orders he sought, and threw out the application with costs of suit.
Through his lawyer, Professor Lovermore Madhuku, Chombo is now seeking the superior court’s intervention to overturn the decision.
In the notice of appeal filed at the Supreme Court today, Prof Madhuku advised the court that his client is challenging the entire judgment of the lower court.
Chombo is insisting that Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Anxious Jongwe Masuka has no power to cancel the 99-year-lease in terms of the Land Commission Act.
The former minister was allocated the farm in 2001, and subsequently had a 99-year lease agreement approved in 2006.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter