Bhasikiti challenge flops

Politics
Former Mwenezi East MP Kudakwashe Bhasikiti’s bid to challenge President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF over his expulsion from the party went up in smoke yesterday after his application was thrown out by High Court judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu.
Kudakwashe Bhasikiti
Kudakwashe Bhasikiti

Former Mwenezi East MP Kudakwashe Bhasikiti’s bid to challenge President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF over his expulsion from the party went up in smoke yesterday after his application was thrown out by High Court judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu.

BY CHARLES LAITON

Justice Bhunu said Bhasikiti had prematurely brought his matter to the High Court without exhausting domestic remedies provided for in the Zanu PF constitution.

“Under article 10, the constitution provides for an elaborate comprehensive system of disciplinary committees ranging from branch disciplinary committees up to the central committee. According to the party constitution only the national disciplinary committee can expel a member from the party,” Justice Bhunu said.

“The applicant was expelled from the party by the national disciplinary committee on May 21, 2015 mainly on allegations of pushing for the regime change ouster of the first respondent from his post as President of the party and government.”

Justice Bhunu said Zanu PF was a political party with a constitution that had disciplinary procedures comprising an elaborate system of review and appeal procedures.

“It is clear that the party constitution provides that same remedy that the applicant is seeking in this court in the form of a review,” Justice Bhunu said.

“When two or more adults of sound mind come together and consent to a lawful agreement that agreement is sacrosanct, binding and enforceable.”

The court said when Bhasikiti joined Zanu PF he freely and voluntarily elected to be bound by its constitution.

“The exhaustion of domestic remedies before approaching the courts is a well-known administrative law principle,” Justice Bhunu said.

“The mischief behind the principle is to avoid clogging the courts width matters that can be resolved in-house at shop level without the involvement of strangers.

“The only cogent reason advanced by the applicant for fleeing to the High Court is that the first respondent (Mugabe) chairs both the central committee and the politburo, the law is very clear, and that no man shall be a judge in his own case.

“I take judicial notice that the first respondent is an educated man who is unlikely to insist on presiding over a case in which he has personal interest.”

Bhasikiti was represented by former MDC-T secretary-general Tendai Biti while Mugabe and Zanu PF were represented by Advocate Terence Hussein.

Meanwhile, Zapu leader, Dumiso Dabengwa, scored a victory when Justice Bhunu ordered the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to carry out its mandatory obligation of ensuring all citizens intending to vote were registered.

Justice Bhunu said Dabengwa being a citizen of Zimbabwe and a bonafide leader of a political party, had a clear constitutional right to participate in democratic elections properly conducted according to law and the same applied to his party Zapu.

Commenting on Dabengwa’s application seeking to bar the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission from relying on previous voters’ rolls compiled by the then Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede, the judge said had the Zapu leader sought to prohibit the commission, it would certainly have said so in clear and unambiguous terms.