LAWYERS representing the Mavambo Movement have filed an ordinary application to bar former Zanu PF politburo member Simba Makoni from using its property.
The application comes barely a week after Judge President Rita Makarau threw out an earlier urgent application by the movement to bar Makoni from using Mavambo’s resources. Â
Makarau said the applicants had failed to approach the courts for relief early enough to show that the matter was urgent.
In the papers lodged at the High Court on Wednesday, the applicants said the Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn Movement campaign was well funded and received a donation of US$3 million and 34 vehicles, some of which were attached to Makoni.
“Serious problems arose in the Movement after the elections in March 2008. For reasons difficult to understand, Simba Makoni literally became a very different Simba Makoni from the Simba Makoni whom the Movement had nurtured into being its presidential candidate,” the court application says.
According to the papers, Makoni and a small team of what are allegedly his personal friends, including Abby Mujeyi, took advantage of their location at the head office, and their administrative responsibilities to make decisions which were completely contrary to those of the National Coordinating Committee.
 “In May and June 2008 for example, the Movement resolved to unilaterally and unconditionally support Morgan Tsvangirai in the event of a runoff. Despite being present at the meetings and in fact agreeing to the resolutions, Simba Makoni proceeded to announce a vague, meaningless and ambivalent position of his own which has hurt the image of the Movement,” the application states.
The movement also accuses Makoni and his coterie of friends of turning the money and assets of Mavambo to their own personal use.
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Mavambo alleges that there are 20 other cars which despite a resolution, Makoni has withheld and refuses to distribute to the provinces. Â
Meanwhile, the trial of the Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, Eric Matinenga, opened yesterday in Mutare with the MDC-T legislator insisting that he is being persecuted for an order he obtained from the High Court to bar soldiers from his constituency.
Matinenga was last June arrested for inciting violence in his constituency barely two weeks after he had successfully sought a High Court order barring military deployment in his constituency.
The Buhera West MP told Mutare magistrate Hlekani Mwayera that he had no reason to incite violence in his constituency since he had won a relatively clean and peaceful election.
He said: “The conclusion I have drawn is that the Army Commander was most unhappy at the order I got. I had copies on me on that day and intended to serve parties.”
BY LUCIA MAKAMURE
