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Prosper Dembedza-Herald Correspondent

CCC vice president Tendai Biti yesterday continued with his application for referral of his assault case to the Constitutional Court insisting that the presiding magistrate, Mrs Vongai Muchuchuti, and him were protagonists.

Biti is facing charges of manhandling a Zimbabwean investor, Mrs Tatiana Aleshina, at the Harare Magistrates Court.

He had been making this application for the past two months and is continuing.

For the past two months, Biti has been repeating what he had been saying in this application.

He is claiming that the court has persistently abused his constitutional rights.

“Some of the rulings being made by this court are an insult to my constitutional rights,” he said.

The matter was deferred to September 21 for continuation.

Biti recently told the court that he was surprised why his matter was moved from the provincial to the regional court.

“I was shocked about three things, my matter was taken from the provincial court to the regional court under unclear grounds,” he said.

Biti said his matter was taken from Court 3 to the anti-corruption court also under unclear circumstances.

“I was also shocked why my matter was taken away from court 3 to be handled by a senior magistrate and Mr Micheal Reza, who is deputy Prosecutor General.’’

During the previous sitting, Mr Reza also informed to the court that Biti’s application for recusal of the magistrate was not procedural, and lacked merit.

 Mr Reza put it to Biti during cross examination that he abandoned his application for referral of the matter to the Constitutional Court after the court ruled that his matter be heard on a daily basis to ensure progress.

In his response, Biti alleged that the ruling by the court affected his constitutional rights, and he did not want anyone to take away the rights he was given by the constitution.

Mr Reza further informed Biti that if he had any reservations with the court’s ruling, he should have appealed to the superior courts rather than applying for the magistrate’s recusal.

Biti insisted that he wanted Mrs Muchuchuti to recuse herself, further alleging that they are protagonists, a position that was dismissed by today’s ruling.

In her ruling to hear the matter on a daily basis, Mrs Muchuchuti highlighted that Biti’s application for referral of the matter to the Constitutional Court started on May 27, and up to date, the application is yet to conclude.

She said she needed to dispose of the matter within a reasonable timeframe, hence the adoption of interventions where the matter will be heard daily with immediate effect.

Mrs Muchuchuti further reiterated that Biti should be reminded that he was the accused in the matter and should give it priority over other matters.

“With the rate we are managing this case, it means the accused will need another two months to finish his application,” she said.