Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
Former Zanu-PF Politburo member Mr Kudakwashe Bhasikiti created his own problems when he failed to seek domestic remedy with the revolutionary party’s Central Committee as provided for by the party’s constitution, the High Court heard on Thursday.

A lawyer representing Zanu-PF, Mr Terrence Hussein, told High Court judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu that Mr Bhasikiti wants outside bodies like the courts to extricate him from his political woes when he could have sought internal remedy.

Justice Bhunu reserved judgment.

Mr Hussein said this during a High Court hearing in which Mr Bhasikiti was challenging his expulsion from the party.

Mr Bhasikiti cited President Mugabe and Zanu-PF as first and second respondents.

“His refusal to appeal to that body is tantamount to creating his own problems and then he wants this court to extricate him,” said Mr Hussein.

“You may complain about His Excellency, President Mugabe or Dr Chombo (Zanu-PF secretary for Administration), but the Central Committee has 300 members, unlike the Politburo which has 60 people. It is a game of numbers. There are 300 members elected from various places across the country.

“They are diverse and they know their party’s constitution, their values, certainly they are better equipped to deal with an appeal than outside bodies as this one.”

He said if Mr Bhasikiti had misgivings against anyone, it was within his right to seek for his recusal either in respect of how the party’s national disciplinary committee was constituted or in the Central Committee.

Arguments raised against Mr Bhasikiti were that he had not sought leave to sue the President, and that he raised constitutional issues on what could have been addressed by the relevant courts.

Mr Bhasikiti’s lawyer, Mr Tendai Biti, submitted that the requirement to appeal to the Central Committee was not mandatory.

He said one would use that route if he felt it was effective.

In this case, said Mr Biti, it was not effective because President Mugabe who chaired the Politburo that expelled Mr Bhasikiti also chaired the Central Committee.

“The applicant was expelled arbitrarily, in a manner that shocks reasonableness. There is no letter summoning him to a hearing, no judgment. He learnt of his expulsion in the newspaper. So how can he appeal against something he has not been advised of?” said Mr Biti.

He said a letter was only delivered to him on June 22, a month after the decision was taken and when Mr Bhasikiti had already approached the courts for redress.

“There is nothing to appeal because there is no judgment. Even today, you cannot put something on nothing. Zanu-PF is in flagrant breach of its own constitution,” he said.

He said the case should not be determined on technicalities but on its merit.

Mr Biti said Zanu-PF failed to uphold its own constitution and that of the country when it failed to apply due process as required by the Constituton and administrative justice.

“The respondent is clutching on a straw,” he said.

Mr Biti submitted that Zanu-PF was equally approaching the courts with dirty hands because, among other things, it did not furnish the court with record of proceedings of its national disciplinary committee and minutes of the Politburo as required by the High Court Act on application for review.

“What you have are a bunch of irrelevant papers meant to make you believe that there was a vote of no confidence passed against the applicant,” he said.

Mr Biti said there was no need to seek leave to sue the President because he was being sued in his official capacity as a leader of a political party.

“We have not sued His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. We have sued a private political actor. For purposes of this application, it is fortuitous that he is the President of Zimbabwe. It could have been Morgan Richard Tsvangirai,” he said.

Mr Biti said the law requiring leave to be obtained before suing a sitting President was potentially unconstitutional because a Head of State was a political gladiator who could provoke and be provoked, insult and be insulted and involved in adventures and misadventures. He said the Constitution now allowed the High Court to deal with some constitutional issues.

Yesterday’s hearing followed a Constitutional Court order compelling the Registrar of the High Court to urgently set down the case to ensure the dispute was resolved by July 31 this year.

Others that were expelled are Messrs Ray Kaukonde, David Butau, Didymus Mutasa, Claudious Makova and Rugare Gumbo after they were implicated in a plot to unseat President Mugabe.

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