Chief has no power to summon MDC candidate to court

By Tichaona Sibanda
09 November 2006

An MDC activist summoned to stand trial in a Kangaroo court for defying an order by a local traditional chief in Mhondoro-Ngezi will not attend that trial on Friday.Sylvester Matizanadzo, the party’s losing candidate for ward 6 in the area, two weeks ago defied Chief Nyika’s orders not to contest against a Zanu (PF) candidate during the rural district council elections. He was to answer charges of insubordination. But the MDC’s legal and Parliamentary Affairs secretary Innocent Gonese, a lawyer by profession, has written to the chief making it clear that Matizanadzo will not avail himself to a hearing convened by a traditional chief to discuss political matters.

The party’s director for elections in Chitungwiza province Brighton Chisvo said Gonese’ letter ‘confirmed what we knew all along that chiefs do not have jurisdiction over political matters.’ The Kangaroo court had been set for this Friday at Bururu clinic near Pondo Mbiri township under headman Chitawu’s area. The letter to the chief was also copied to the provincial magistrate in Kadoma. ‘The trial is illegal in that it will be in breach of the terms of the bill of rights in our national constitution. The letter also spells out that our candidate has a democratic right to belong to any political party of his choice and participate in any democratic election in the country,’ Chisvo said.

Chisvo said issues raised in the letters to the chief and the provincial magistrate in Kadoma reinforce that arguments that ‘Zanu (PF) never wins elections but steal them.’ ‘They always instil fear in people to vote for them. They use the power of cohesion, violence against the vulnerable rural people,’ he said.