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Chief Court Reporter
Mbare MP Cde Tendai Savanhu’s appeal against a High Court decision to return a vehicle he used when he was Hwange Colliery Company board chairman to the firm has been dismissed with punitive costs.Cde Savanhu, who is Lands and Rural Resettlement Deputy Minister, was Hwange non-executive board chair from 2006 to 2011.

He was allocated a Toyota Land Cruiser in July 2011, but was removed from the board a month later. The coal mining giant claimed its vehicle back, but Cde Savanhu clung to it even though it was registered in the company’s name, resulting in him being sued at the High Court.

The court ruled that he had no legal right to hold on to the vehicle after he was removed from the board. Cde Savanhu appealed at the Supreme Court. Justice Vernanda Ziyambi threw out the appeal in a ruling in which she hit out at Cde Savanhu for wasting the court’s time by making a case he could not win. Justices Anne-Mary Gowora and Susan Mavangira (Acting Judge of Appeal) concurred.

Advocate Thabani Mpofu, who appeared for Hwange, told the court that Cde Savanhu failed to set out a defence required at law.