MDC-T president Nelson Chamisa`s bid to stop rival faction leader Thokozani Khupe from using party name and symbols hit a brickwall after the Bulawayo High Court threw out Chamisa`s bid to have the matter had on an urgent basis.
The Nelson Chamisa-faction had dragged Khupe to court after the clash over the ownership of the party name and symbol.
Khupe was last Saturday elected as the president of her faction at the party`s extra ordinary congress in Bulawayo.
The former Deputy Prime Minister has argued that she is legitimate successor to the late Morgan Tsvangirai and has dismissed Chamisa`s claim to the throne.
Justice Francis Bere onTuesday dismissed the urgent chamber application ruling that both factions can continue to use the party name until the dispute is settled by the courts.
“We managed to have the matter dismissed on preliminary issues. One of the issues was that there is a crisis of legitimacy within the MDC-T, neither of the parties can challenge the use of the symbol by any of the parties without first resolving the issue of who is the legitimate president of the MDC-T,” said Kholwani Ngwenya, who was representing Khupe.
Ngwenya said the judge also ruled that he matter was not urgent as there was no reason for the matter to jump the queue.
“The other reason is that it’s a technical argument that they (applicants) had requested the same order in the interim and the final order that they want when this matter is finally argued. That is not allowed and permissible at law,” he said.
The ruling is likely to cause more fissures in the faction ridden party with both factions campaigning vigorously ahead of the harmonized elections in July
