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Fidelis Munyoro Chief Court Reporter
The High Court has struck off the roll the civil trial of the case in which the Lovemore Matombo-led faction of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions is challenging the legitimacy of the labour union’s August 2011 Bulawayo congress.
The case was struck off because the key witness, former ZCTU secretary-general Mr Wellington Chibhebhe, who is now based in Brussels where he is attached at the International Trade Unions Council, was not available.
The dispute arose after Mr Matombo lost to the incumbent Mr George Nkiwane.
The Matombo camp accused the Nkiwane faction of massive manipulation of the voting process, which included wrong people being allowed to vote during the election in violation of the ZCTU constitution. The matter was set for hearing on Monday, but Justice Priscilla Chigumba was forced to defer the hearing because of the unavailability of Mr Chibhebhe. The Nkiwane-led faction’s lawyer Mr Alec Muchadehama requested for the postponement, which the rival faction lawyer Advocate Rambai Chingwena did not oppose.
“The main witness in this case is not available, so we have requested for the matter to be postponed to allow us to bring the witness here from Brussels,” Mr Muchadehama told The Herald soon after the court adjourned.
“We received short notice and it was impossible to arrange for the witness to come to Zimbabwe to testify. He has a busy itinerary. So, the matter has been removed from the roll.”
Advocate Chingwena confirmed the latest development without elaborating. The Matombo-led faction is arguing that then outgoing secretary-general Mr Chibhebhe personally amended the constitution and also changed the tenure of presidency to elbow out the then incumbent president Mr Matombo from participating in the elections.
They argued that the regional congresses held before the main congress were manipulated to accommodate an inflated number of Mr Chibhebhe’s cronies to participate in the voting process.
In this case, they want the High Court to nullify the 2011 congress on the basis that it was illegitimate. But the Nkiwane-led faction is arguing that the congress results must be upheld because the elections were properly conducted in terms of the union’s constitution. They want the application to be dismissed with costs, arguing it lacks merit.
The case spilled over into the High Court in 2012 when the same court provisionally blocked the Matombo-led faction from presenting themselves as the union’s leaders.
Online Reporter