Kasukuwere says fight is not over

EXILED former cabinet minister Saviour Kasukuwere has said the fight is not over after the Supreme Court threw out his appeal challenging the High Court's decision to remove him from the ballot.

The Supreme Court Friday concurred with the High Court ruling that his appeal lacked merit but did not give full reasons for the judgment.

On Thursday a three-panel bench comprising Justices Antonia Guvava, Chinembiri Bhunu and Felistus Chatukuta heard arguments from both parties before reserving the ruling.

Kasukuwere had mounted a Supreme Court application after the High Court nullified the Nomination Court's decision to accept his papers.

This followed an application by a Zanu-PF activist, Lovedale Mangwana who challenged Kasukuwere's nomination arguing that he ceased to be a registered voter having spent over 18 months outside the country.

In handing down the ruling, Justice Chatukuta said: "We carefully considered the evidence and oral submissions by both counsels. The court is of the view the appeal lacks merit. The appeal be and is hereby dismissed with no order as to costs".

Through his lawyers, Kasukuwere said his papers are already in place and will be appealing at the highest court, the Constitutional Court.

"As a nation, we are on the eve of a constitutional and electoral crisis", said Method Ndlovu, his lawyer soon after the ruling.

"Because we have the apex court which is the constitutional court and we have received instructions from our client to take up the next available step in order to make sure that he remains on the ballot paper.

"So I wouldn't say we are out of time in order to protect the best interests of our client. We didn't sleep. We have papers in our bags and they will be filed," he said.

Kasukuwere's spokesperson Jacqueline Sande concurred saying it was disappointing that the judges did not give reasons for their ruling.

"We had expected the court to go into the full reasons of finding that the appeal lacks merit and we are disappointed that the reasons were not availed despite the fact the counsel spent a long time yesterday delivering their submissions we expected that the court with those submissions would be able to give us sufficient reasons why they found the appeal lacks merit.

"This is definitely not the end of the road. We are still persisting to fight to be included to see President Saviour Kasukuwere included on that ballot.

"There is no such thing as running out of time when you are fighting for justice and fighting for democracy. It is President Saviour Kasukuwere's constitutional right to stand as a presidential candidate as well as the right of citizens of the multitude of Zimbabweans who also want to vote for him," she said.