Mnangagwa petitioned in bid to recover $1,5 million

A Mutare businessman seeking the return of his $1,5 million confiscated by the police in 2008 following his arrest on theft charges, has petitioned President Emmerson Mnangagwa to intervene in the long-running case.

Tendai Blessing Mangwiro, who was acquitted in 2012, has been in and out of the courts in his quest to get his money back after police claimed the $1,5 million had been handed over to the then complainant, Andrea Nsaka Nsaka.

Despite winning several court applications to have the money released to him, Mangwiro has not yet received a cent from Treasury, forcing him to petition Mnangagwa.

In a letter dated January 29, 2018, he said Mnangagwa can use his executive powers to facilitate payment.

"Mr president, I am just a mere Zimbabwean citizen by birth who, after taking cognisant of your inaugural speech and your State-of-the-Nation Address before the sitting of joint Houses of Parliament and Senate whereby you set the tone and emphasised your government's thrust to uphold rule of law and the Constitution of the Republic of Zimbabwe, which same sentiments were echoed and buttressed by the Chief Justice of Zimbabwe in his speech marking the opening of the 2018 legal year,...motivated me to petition you as the executive authority of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

"Mr president, it is with a heavy heart that I seek for your urgent indulgency and intervention in my…case…," Mangwiro said.

He said despite obtaining judgments in his favour, which were also confirmed by the Supreme Court, nothing was done to pay back his money.

In his quest to seek justice, Mangwiro has previously applied for the striking off of the State Liabilities Act from the statutes to allow him access to attach government property.

Even though High Court judge Edith Mushore ruled that the State Liabilities Act is unconstitutional, Mangwiro's Constitutional Court application for confirmation bounced back on a technicality, pushing him back to the High Court to seek for the then Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo's arrest.

Mangwiro had argued that contrary to Chombo's claims that he complied with the court order by writing a letter to the Finance ministry to release the funds that was not good enough because compliance to him entailed having his account credited with the money.

"On the 2nd of March 2016 and on the 10th of November 2016, the minister of Home Affairs wrote to the minister of Finance requesting for Treasury concurrence in order to settle the…amounts stated in the court orders…

"To date, which is now over 22 months after his receipt of the above mentioned Request for Treasury Concurrence, the court orders remain unsettled as the minister of Finance (honourable Patrick Chinamasa) who despite being a lawyer by profession and having taken oath of affirmation as a minister, wherein he swore to uphold the Constitution and all other laws of Zimbabwe, he is alive and conscious to the effect of court orders, but still remains defiant, unnerved and continues to contemptuously sit on same whilst interest balloons at the expense of the taxpayer," Mangwiro said.

He said after making two requests for Treasury concurrence, the then Home Affairs minister Chombo proceeded to secure a declaratory order at the High Court, claiming to have complied with the court orders in terms of the requirements of the State Liabilities Act.

"My life's fabric and that of my business are now torn apart and in tatters yet the minister of Finance continues to deliberately fail to execute his statutory and constitutional duty cast upon him which is to grant the much-needed Treasury concurrence mentioned above in order to satisfy my court orders.

"It is for the above mentioned reasons that I hereby petition you as the executive authority of the Republic of Zimbabwe to reign-in and intervene by reading the riot act to the minister of Finance whose commissions or omission is neither lawful nor does it augur well in tandem with the new dispensation, leaving your recent pronouncements hollow, as to date I have tried everything to have my court orders satisfied by Zimbabwean government to no avail, thereby making me baby-seat barren judgments for more than three years," he said.