Kombayi lawsuit set for court

By Lance Guma
11 April 2006

Sixteen years after state security agents shot him in an assassination attempt, veteran politician Patrick Kombayi looks set to have his day in court. The weekly Zimbabwe Standard reports that Kombayi has lodged a Z$172 billion lawsuit against ruling party officials. The case is set for a pre-trial conference this week. As National Organising Secretary for the Zimbabwe Unity Movement (ZUM), Kombayi was gunned down in March 1990. The incident took place in the run up to a parliamentary election for the Gweru urban seat and pitted him against the late Vice President Simon Muzenda.

His attackers were convicted of attempted murder but were later pardoned by Robert Mugabe using presidential powers of clemency. The justification was that the attack was political, but Kombayi who sought treatment in the United Kingdom wants compensation for the medical bills he incurred and the permanent injury to his manhood. Although Muzenda has since passed away Kombayi says he will sue his estate. He is also suing ruling party heavyweight Emerson Mnangagwa, since he was the State Security Minister at the time.

Walter Marwizi a journalist with the Zimbabwe Standard explained to Newsreel how the case only got off the ground two years after Muzenda’s death. He revealed how some of the files relating to the case went missing but were later found, following a tip off. Kombayi has another lawsuit with the courts in which he is suing Mnangagwa, Mambo Press and Professor Ngwabi Bhebhe for a book ‘Simon Muzenda’ which he says contains defamatory statements about him. According to Kombayi the book portrays him as a liberation war sell-out. He is seeking Z$112 billion in damages. Mnangagwa tried to ignore the lawsuit, only for the High Court to order the attachment of his property via a default order.