Zanu PF Mabvuku-Tafara candidate Pedzisayi Scott Sakupwanya has won uncontested after High Court Judge Justice Never Katiyo barred Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) candidate Munyaradzi Kufahakutizwi from contesting in the Saturday’s by-elections.
Kufahakutizwi had won the seat in the August elections before Sengezo Tshabangu recalled him.
Tshabangu successfully petitioned the High Court to bar the eight recalled CCC MPs from running in the mini-polls.
However, Kufahakutizwi’s name had not been included in the initial order and Justice Katiyo on Thursday added his name after issuing a new order.
In an interview with CITE, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Chief Elections Officer, Utloile Silaigwana, stated that if only one candidate remained on the ballot paper, it meant they had won.
“If you got to the Nomination Court and there’s only one candidate left that candidate is duly nominated. You have the answer already,” he said.
“We are complying with the (High Court) court order that we were given. That’s what we are doing now, and nothing else, nothing more. We are just complying with the court order. The court order told us what to do yesterday. I think you have the court order, you have exactly what they said what we must do and we are doing exactly that.”
It is understood that Justice Katiyo corrected on the basis that Kufahakutizwi is cited as a respondent in applicant -Sengezo Tshabangu’s founding affidavit. However, lawyers had excluded him as a respondent in the draft order.
Tshabangu has stated that Kufahakutizwi’s recall was an error, following the murder of his campaign manager, Pastor Tapfumanei Masaya, who was abducted on November 11, 2023 and bundled into a vehicle by unknown men while campaigning for the CCC’s candidate.
Masaya had been abducted with fellow activist Jeffrey Kalosi during CCC’s by-elections campaign.
Masaya’s brutally beaten body was found three days later on the outskirts of Harare.
Kalosi was severely beaten and dumped hours later at Chabwino Farm not far from where Tapfumanei’s corpse was found days later.
