EXILED presidential candidate Saviour Kasukuwere will know his fate today when the Supreme Court makes a ruling on his bid to contest for the presidency on August 23.
Kasukuwere approached the Supreme Court after High Court judge Justice David Mangota barred him from contesting the presidential election.
Mangota made the ruling after Zanu PF activist, Lovedale Mangwana, approached the High Court seeking an order declaring Kasukuwere’s candidacy null and void.
Mangwana said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) erred by accepting Kasukuwere’s nomination papers when he had been out of the country for more than 18 months.
The Zanu PF activist made another urgent application seeking the execution of the judgment.
He wanted Zec to start printing ballot papers without Kasukuwere’s name, but the case was struck off the roll early this week.
Yesterday, Kasukuwere’s lawyers Welshman Ncube and Method Ndlovu told Supreme Court Justices Chinembiri Bhunu, George Chiweshe and Susan Mavangira that Mangwana had no locus standi.
“The right to approach Zec is vested upon voters registered in the same constituency,” Ncube submitted.
“A voter registered in Bulawayo cannot challenge the voter in Chimanimani.
“Voters are registered in constituencies and not the whole country in the first instance.
“I submit that in terms of the Electoral Act, there was no locus standi.”
Ncube said a voter cannot approach the High Court to remove someone’s candidacy.
Ndlovu said Kasukuwere never ceased to be a Zimbabwean citizen.
“Absence does not mean one ceases to be a resident of Zimbabwe,” he said.
“The question is did he cease or was he absent and the judgment court a quo says absent throughout.
“He never ceased to be a resident so the court a quo embarked on a wrong inquiry.”
The judges dismissed Mangwana’s argument that the Supreme Court was a wrong court to approach.
Mangwana’s lawyer Lewis Uriri said the argument by the appellant was without merit. He said there was a distinction between nomination and election, adding that they do not mean the same thing.
Uriri said Kasukuwere was failing to produce his passport or an affidavit confirming that he was not absent from Zimbabwe.
Last week, Kasukuwere made another High Court application, saying Justice Mangota was a compromised judge “who had received a house from the State three working days before rendering his judgment.”
”I was shocked to learn that Justice Mangota was given an immovable property by the State on July 7, 2023, the date upon which he heard the matter and reserved his judgment,” Kasukuwere submitted.
“Judges of the Constitutional Court had their contracts for purchase of houses cancelled by sellers after Treasury failed to release the funds.
“I am thus shocked that a High Court judge could get a house ahead of his superiors, that is the judges of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court. Even the Judge President herself has no house from the State.”
