Zanu-PF lawyers find ConCourt closed for holidays

ZANU-PF lawyers yesterday made an embarrassing mistake when they made a beeline to the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) to file their response to opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa's presidential challenge, only to find that the courts were closed for the public holidays.

Zanu-PF legal secretary Munyaradzi Paul MangwanaParty secretary for legal affairs Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana was caught on camera as he led a team of lawyers to the ConCourt only to be stopped by locked gates as they moved to file their opposing papers.

Mangwana said he had expected the courts to be open because of the urgency of the matter, but found the gates closed and will now only file the papers tomorrow.

"Because of the urgency of this matter, I expected the courts to be open, but unfortunately the court was closed and I understand that because of the holiday. I understand they are just opening on Wednesday morning. So we will file our papers on Wednesday morning," Mangwana said.

Zanu-PF has three days within which to respond to Chamisa's petition after being served with the court papers last Friday. Chamisa is seeking nullification of President-elect Emmerson Mnangagwa's victory.

"This exposes the Zanu-PF legal team to an embarrassing interpretation that they can read the law, they have been making arguments that Chamisa filed his papers out of time because seven days had lapsed, now that they went to court and found the gates locked, I am sure they now know which days the court counts," said a top lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Zanu-PF said it has hired a team of 12 lawyers to defend Mnangagwa's contested victory.