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Attorney-General Prince Machaya

Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter
Attorney-General Advocate Prince Machaya has scoffed at an attempt by suspended ZBC chief executive Happison Muchechetere to have his office and President Mugabe cited as respondents in his constitutional challenge against prose- cution.

Muchechetere wants the Constitutional Court to quash his trial on allegations of swindling the national broadcaster of thousands of dollars in an Outside Broadcasting Van procurement scam.

Initially, he had cited the State (National Prosecuting Authority) as the sole respondent, but made an afterthought to add the AG and President Mugabe respectively as second and third respondents through an application for joinder.

In a letter to the Registrar of the Constitutional Court, Adv Machaya said the purported application served on him was not properly served and that it did not meet the standards of a real court application.

“I am in receipt of a document headed, “Court Application for Joinder” filed by the applicant on the 20th March 2015 in which he seeks to join me and the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe in certain proceedings which are pending before your honourable court.

“My difficulty with the application is that; it is not a court application. The documents pertaining to the matter to which the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and I are to be joined were not attached and so I do not know what matter the President and I are to be joined to…”

Adv Machaya said Muchechetere wrongly served the AG’s Office with papers meant for President Mugabe because they did not share the same ad- dress.

To that end, the AG contends that the President was not served with the papers in ques- tion.

“My address is not the address for the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and it is therefore not correct to serve upon me the process intended for the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe,” he said.

Yesterday, Deputy Chief Justice Luke Malaba sitting with eight other judges of the Constitutional Court, deferred the case indefinitely after the AG’s representative, Ms Venranda Munyoro, raised the objection orally.

She indicated that proper service had to be done and that the cited parties should be allowed time to respond to the application for joinder.

Muchechetere is being charged with contravening sections of the Procurement Act after purchasing an outside broadcasting van from China without going to tender.

He argued that the charge should be withdrawn because it is defective and invalid since ZBC is not a procuring entity.

He wants Constitutional Court to make a determination on the validity of the provision, which he is being charged under.