THE High Court Thursday offered the MDC Alliance temporary relief after it stopped the government from disbursing ZW$7.5 million to the MDC-T faction led by Thokozani Khupe under the Political Parties Finance Act.
The MDC Alliance took Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi and Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube to court seeking an order compelling Ziyambi to pay the money into its bank account.
Justice Nyaradzo Munangati-Manongwa granted the interim order.
“The 1st (Justice Minister) and 2nd (Finance Minister) respondents be and are hereby interdicted, stopped and barred from disbursing the sum of ZWL $7 492 500.00 due to the applicant in terms of the Political Finance Act or any other amount thereof, to any other than the MDC Alliance,” Justice Munangati-Manongwa said.
The High Court further ordered Ziyambi to pay MDC Alliance within a week and also ordered the government bear costs of suit.
However, the government was given 10 days to respond failure to which the matter will be set down for hearing at the High Court.
“If you do not file an opposing affidavit within the period specified above, this matter will be set down for hearing in the High Court at Harare without further notice to you and will be dealt with as an unopposed application for confirmation of the provisional order.
“If you wish to have the provisional order changes or set aside sooner than the rules of Court normally allow and can show good cause for this, you should approach the applicant/applicant’s legal practitioner to agree, in consultation with the Registrar, on a suitable hearing date. If this cannot be agreed or there is a great urgency, you make Chamber application, on notice to the applicant, for directions from a judge as to when the matter can be argued,” reads part of Justice Munangati-Manongwa’s provisional order.
The MDC Alliance is owed the money based on its share of the parliamentary vote from the July 2018 elections.
