Supreme court blow for Mugabe

JUDGE President George Chiweshe yesterday barred President Mugabe from appealing to the Supreme Court against a ruling allowing Prime Minister Tsvangirai to sue him.

PM Tsvangirai was allowed to sue the President for appointing 10 provincial governors without consulting him in an earlier High Court judgment.

The President's lawyer Mr Terrence Hussein of Ranchhod and Hussein law firm argued that PM Tsvangirai was supposed to first seek permission from the High Court before suing the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.

He relied on Rule 18 of the High Court.

After the dismissal of the preliminary point, the President, through Mr Hussein, sought leave to contest the decision at the Supreme Court.

In the latest judgment handed down yesterday, Justice Chiweshe threw out the application with costs.

However, Mr Hussein last night said he was still taking instructions on the next move.

"I have just received a copy of the judgment and am still taking instructions. But I believe we have a right to appeal," said Mr Hussein.

Justice Chiweshe ruled that President Mugabe's chances of winning the appeal case at the highest court in the country were slim considering previous court judgments confirming that the President can be sued without firstly getting authority from the higher court.

"The Supreme Court has already ruled adjudicated the legal status of Rule 18 of the High Court (relied upon by the President).

"It did so in the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights case supra. "I have no doubt in my mind that the President or any other member of the executive can be sued in his official capacity without leave of the court.

"In any event, it is not in dispute that there are many other cases, past and pending in which the President has been sued in his official capacity.

"No similar objections have been raised by the parties or the courts, a fact that tends to confirm that the applicants' position is unprecedented and unsupportable at law.

"For these reasons I would, as I hereby do, order that the application for leave to appeal be dismissed with costs," ruled Justice Chiweshe.

In the dismissed application the President argued that his prospects of success on appeal were very high.

Mr Hussein, in his grounds of appeal, had argued that: "The court a quo erred in not accepting that in terms of Rule 18 and the common law, leave to sue the President should first be sought and granted before instituting legal proceedings against him in the High Court."

In the main application PM Tsvangirai is challenging the appointment of the 10 provincial Governors arguing that President Mugabe erred by not consulting him.

He is seeking the nullification of the appointments.

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