Gloves off in battle for Eaglesvale

courthammer28janChief Court Reporter
The battle for control of Eaglesvale High and Junior Schools was yesterday rekindled after the Supreme Court gave the board of governors of the schools the green light to contest the Dutch Reformed Church in Zimbabwe’s decision to dissolve the board and hand over the school trust to the church. The board of governors for the church-run school was dissolved sometime in 2010 and the trust handed over to the church.

Three years later the articles of association of Daisyfield Trust were altered to accommodate change of ownership through a special resolution resulting in the trust being renamed “The Reformed Church in Zimbabwe’s Daisyfield Trust”.

This means the oversight of the school then moved to the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe who then became the trustees.
In a ruling handed down yesterday, Justice Vernanda Ziyambi allowed the appeal in part giving the governors a chance to take their case back to the High Court as a normal court application.

The High Court had dismissed the urgent chamber application on the basis that it was not urgent.
But on appeal Justice Ziyambi ruled the lower court should have simply removed the matter from the roll.

“The appeal succeeds in part. The judgment of the court a quo (lower court) is altered to read…the matter is not urgent. It is struck off the roll,” said Justice Ziyambi.
The board of governors, who were being represented by Advocate Thabani Mpofu, argued that reason for the application in the lower court was that the new trustees were wreaking havoc and disrupting the management of the school.

They also argued that the new trustees were abusing school funds and resources for personal gain.
It was further argued that the trustees had lifted the suspension of the headmaster, Mr Naison Tirivavi, on charges of misconduct that were still pending.

But the church and Mr Tirivavi, who were being represented by Advocates Thembinkosi Magwaliba and Firoz Girach, opposed the appeal arguing that the lower court properly ruled that the matter was not urgent.

They wanted the court to uphold the lower court’s decision.

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