Chitungwiza council in contempt of court Chitungwiza Municipality

chitungwizaSenior Court Reporter
A Chitungwiza man has filed an application to have the town’s housing director jailed for non-compliance with a court order restoring his ownership of a stand that had been improperly allocated to someone else.
Mr Isaac Zakaria was allocated stand number 17129 in Zengeza, which measured 250 square metres, but council subsequently allocated it to another person.
The High Court last year declared Mr Zakaria the owner of the stand and ordered council to immediately restore his title and rights to the property.

But the council did not comply with the order, prompting Mr Zakaria to instruct his lawyer, Mr Maxwell Mavhunga, to file an application for contempt of court against Chitungwiza Municipality and 30 days imprisonment for the housing  director.

In the May 13 High Court application, the municipality, its housing director and the deputy sheriff were cited as respondents.
Mr Zakaria stated that on August 21 last year, Justice Joseph Musakwa ruled in his favour in the ownership dispute and directed council to restore rights to the property to him within seven days of granting of the order.

Council did not comply, arguing that it had already allocated the stand to another person and thus the order could not be complied with.
Mr Zakaria said: “First and second respondents (council and the housing director) have violated the court order by not restoring rights, title and interests in respect of stand number 17129 to me within seven days of the granting of the order.

“They received a letter from my legal practitioners of record notifying them that they were in contempt of court as they had failed to follow an order of this honourable court.”

In an opposing affidavit forming part of the notice of opposition, town clerk Mr George Makunde urged the court to dismiss the application because Mr Zakaria was offered an alternative stand that he turned down.

He said allocation of the stand to Mr Zakaria was erroneous.
The matter is yet to be set down for hearing at the High Court.

You Might Also Like

Comments

Take our Survey

We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey