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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Sports Reporter
BULAWAYO High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese has dismissed veteran administrator Musa Mandaza’s application challenging results of the 2018 Zifa Southern Region chairmanship.
Mandaza lost to former Highlanders’ secretary-general Andrew Tapela by seven votes to 20 and approached the appeals committee seeking to set the results aside citing breach of the constitution.
He said in terms of clause 10 of the Zifa constitution, only delegates representing a member club in the Southern Region could vote at a rate of one delegate per club.
He alleged the electoral committee allowed non-delegates from a certain club to vote and the electoral committee had erred by failing to disqualify candidates that contested while holding positions in lower structures/affiliates in breach of clause 7 (iii) of the 2018 Zifa elections nomination form that prohibited candidates that hold a position in lower structures from running for higher office without relinquishing their posts upon submission of their nomination forms.
However, Mandaza’s case was thrown out without being heard by the appeals committee after he failed to pay the $3 000 appeal fee.
He then sought recourse from the Bulawayo High Court, citing the Zifa electoral committee, Zifa and Tapela as the first, second and third respondents respectively.
Other members of the then newly elected Southern Region executive committee, Fiso Siziba, Bryton Malandule, Tizirai Luphahla and Mehluli Thebe were cited as respondents four to seven, while vice-chairman Gaylord Madunguza was not cited
Mandaza prayed that the court declares the election null and void, and accordingly set aside and a fresh election be conducted within 30 days of granting of the order.
The first and second respondents were to bear the cost of the suit on a legal practitioner and client scale.
The first and second respondents opposed the application on the grounds that it lacked particularity and that the application was fatally defective as a non-existent juristic person was being sued. They argued that it was beyond dispute that the first respondent was a committee of the second respondent and in terms of Article 54 of the Zifa constitution, the status of the first respondent was clearly laid out. “It is a body of committee of the second respondent charged with the responsibility of hearing and determining appeals from aggrieved parties. The first respondent is not a juristic person with powers to sue or to be sued.
Members of the first respondent exercise their functions on behalf of the first respondent. There is therefore no legal basis upon which first respondent could be cited and sued in the proceedings,” argued their lawyer Byron Sengweni noting that as such they do not have legal capacity to be sued.
Sengweni further argued that respondents four to seven were not contestants against Mandaza and vied for positions that he had no interest in. “Applicant may not therefore seek to set aside the election of the rest of the respondents against whom he did not contest,” argued Sengweni.
Justice Makonese ruled that Mandaza’s application was fatally defective and ill-conceived.
“I am satisfied that the application is fatally defective in that the applicant sued a non-existent juristic entity. In effect, there is no application before the court. The fourth to seventh respondents were wrongly cited. They were not contestants in the election for the position of chairperson. They have no interest in the matter. The order seeking to nullify the entire elections for the Southern Region is ill-conceived. It is therefore not necessary to proceed to deal with the merits. In the result, and for the aforegoing reasons, the application is dismissed with costs,” ruled Justice Makonese.
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