AN exiled businessman has approached the Constitutional Court, seeking to bar President Emmerson Mnangagwa from contesting in the August 23 elections, the Zimbabwe Independent can report.
Mutumwa Mawere, the magnate who used to preside over the sprawling conglomerate of SMM Holdings before falling out with Zanu PF over a decade ago, argued in his July 5 application that allowing Mnangagwa to contest would be tantamount to condoning violations to the Reconstruction of State Indebted Insolvent Companies Act, which have taken place during his tenure.
The application cites Mawere as the applicant.
SMM, THZ Holdings Limited, Africa Resources Limited, Tap Building Products Limited and Tichaona Mupasiri are cited as second to sixth applicants respectively, while Mnangagwa is cited as the respondent
Mawere gave the examples of Staterun airline, Air Zimbabwe (Airzim) and Hwange Colliery Company Limited, as cases where violations of the law had taken place while the firms were under reconstruction.
In his application for an interim interdict and restraining order, Mawere said Mnangagwa must be “interdicted and restrained from participating in the 2023 elections.”
Mawere said: “Court to declare that Mnangagwa’s conduct in relation to the affairs of Air Zimbabwe Private Limited and Hwange Colliery Company through his direct and personal actions including appointing Chinamasa as chairman of Air Zimbabwe under reconstruction, which conduct was ultra vires the Reconstruction of State-indebted Insolvent Companies Act”.
Chinamasa is the former Finance Minister, who presided over Treasury between 2013 and 2017, before being redeployed to Zanu PF as the treasurer following a coup that toppled long time ruler, the late Robert Mugabe in November 2017.
Mawere argued that the Act precluded the concurrent application of the provisions of the Companies Act in relation to the affairs of a company whose control and management was divested and deprived due to the Reconstruction Act.
— The Zimbabwe Independent
