MDC-T treasurer-general Theresa Makone will tomorrow testify in a High Court case where the party is being sued by two Bulawayo textile companies for failing to pay a R5 million debt.
BY SILAS NKALA
Makone would appear before Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Maxwell Takuva.
MDC-T is denying entering into a deal with two city firms for the supply of branded campaign T-shirts worth R5 million ahead of the 2008 general elections.
Testifying in the case yesterday where Cabat Trade and Finance (Pvt) Limited and Security Mills Group, MDC-T secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora said his party did not receive any campaign material from the firm as alleged.
The two firms claimed they supplied the MDC-T with 200 000 campaign T-shirts and bandanas after being supplied with the party logo, a picture of MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai, an inscription that read, “The New beginning”, MDC-T palm symbol and party colours.
They claimed Bulawayo South MP Eddie Cross (MDC-T) and Simon Spooner verbally sealed the deal on behalf of the opposition party with Security Mills Group representative Laurence Zlattner.
Mwonzora said he would ask the court to consider the party’s constitution and the finance and administration rules record to be added as records of defence.
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“These show mandate or lack of mandate on Simon Spooner and Eddie Cross,” Mwonzora said.
The legal wrangle has been pending in the courts for the past seven years and at one time it spilled into the Supreme Court.
The case was initially thrown out by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Lawrence Kamocha who ruled that the deal was not legal as the country was not officially using foreign currency at the time.
However, on November 28 2012, deputy Chief Justice Luke Malaba, sitting with justices Ann-Mary Gowora and Yunus Omerjee, set aside Justice Kamocha’s ruling and referred the matter back to the High Court for further trial.
The companies were represented by lawyers from Joel Pincus, Konson and Wolhuter Legal Practitioners.
