Kasukuwere’s Presidential Dream “Shattered”

The Constitutional Court has dismissed an appeal by Independent Presidential hopeful Saviour Kasukuwere, who sought to overturn the Supreme Court ruling which affirmed an earlier High Court judgement which barred him from contesting in this year’s harmonized election.

In her ruling, Deputy Chief Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza said Kasuwere’s application was “a disguised appeal.”

“Apart from attacking the correctness of the decision, the applicant did not attack the Supreme Court on how it handled the matter in terms of the rules of the court,” she said. “The court finds that the application being a disguised appeal is not properly before the court. The application be and is hereby with no order as to costs.”

Kasukuwere’s Chief Election Agent Jacqueline Sande was defiant, saying they are going to keep fighting.

“What we are saying is its not over for us, we are going to battle this out,” she said. ” We still have pending case before the Constitutional Court again stating that the High order is not valid until it is confirmed by the Constitutional Court.”

Sande added that her team will fight to make sure that the exiled former Cabinet Minister participates in this year’s mouth watering election.

Kasukuwere’s lawyer, Advocate Method Ndlovu also said the Constitutional court ruling was a minor hurdle which they would overcome.

“What we can say is that litigation is never a sprint, its a marathon, so this is a minor hurdle which we are going to overcome. Like what she said we are going to immediately apply for leave to appeal to the Supreme court on an urgent basis because the elections are fast coming so on that aspect the general populace need not worry, the interest of our client are going to be taken care of,” said Ndlovu.

“More importantly, what was granted by the High Court on the 12th of July 2023 is an order of constitution invalidity so we have already filed an application in the constitutional court to the effect that the elections management body which is ZEC, cannot proceed to print ballot papers and exclude Mr Kasukuwere.”