ZEC sued over $700k debt

Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has been slapped with a $700 000 lawsuit over unpaid fees for vehicles hired for use during elections. CMED (Private) Limited, a wholly state-owned enterprise, hired out vehicles to ZEC and billed the commission $766 509 as hiring fees. ZEC did not pay the money. CMED, through its lawyers T.K Hove and Partners, filed summons for provisional sentence based on a liquid document.

ZEC, according to the claim, signed an acknowledgement of debt, but still failed to pay up. Resultantly, CMED lawyers filed a claim for the principal debt plus interest calculated at the rate of five percent from the date of issuance of summons to the date of payment in full.

The case is yet to be determined by the High Court. Prior to the issuance of the summons, CMED wrote to the commission demanding payment of the debt.

Part of the letter, dated March 8, 2017, reads: “We address you at the instance of our above-mentioned client (CMED) whom you owe the sum of $766 507,39, being monies due and owing to our client for motor vehicle hire, which amount you have neglected and failed to pay despite demand.

“Should the amount remain outstanding within the next seven days, we have instructions to proceed with the summons.”

CMED attached an acknowledgement of debt, which the company relies on as a liquid document.

The document, signed by ZEC’s finance director on May 31 last year, reads: “We acknowledge that our department, ZEC, owes CMED Private Limited the sum of $766 507,39 as at December 31, 2015 for vehicle hire.

“The difference of $69 662,63 to be investigated.”