National Chiefs Council (NCC) leader Chief Fortune Charumbira has refused to comply with a High Court order ordering him to apologise and renounce his support for Zanu-PF. The constitution says that traditional leaders such as chiefs must be neutral and impartial. Charumbira has instead challenged the High Court order saying it was erroneously arrived at.
In his court papers, Charumbira says,
I have been cited as the first respondent in the principal proceedings. As already indicated above, one of the capacities in which I am cited is in my personal capacity. In my personal capacity, I have committed no infraction of the law whatsoever. The application against me in my personal capacity is therefore completely misplaced.
…The averments which I am alleged to have uttered were not made by me in my personal capacity. In any case, the Applicant completely misunderstood the remarks in the statement. They were totally taken out of context. If the entire statement were read together, it actually confirms that as Chiefs we simply agreed that we would support the government of the day in discharging our functions.
Charumbira also claimed that he failed to obey the court order because he was out of the country on official business.
I am not sure as to what exact date the papers in the principle proceedings were served on me. However, during the period when the papers were served, owing to my duties as president of 2nd Applicant (Chief’s Council) and as a member of Parliament of Zimbabwe, I was in and out of the country.
The matter is yet to be set down for hearing.
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