{{The founding affidavit of the petition filed by MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai seeking to nullify results of the harmonised elections is a clear abuse of court process as it was not made under oath presumably to protect him from the prosecutable crime of perjury, President Robert Mugabe has said.}}
The President yesterday filed his opposing papers to Mr Tsvangirai’s application at the Constitutional Court.
Through his lawyer, Mr Terence Hussein of Hussein, Ranchod and Company, the President argues that the MDC-T leader wilfully filed an unsworn affidavit based on defamatory and unsubstantiated allegations designed to impugn the integrity and professionalism of innocent individuals and institutions.
“It appears the applicant filed an unsworn statement after he must have been advised by his lawyers not to swear to falsehoods (given to him by the British ambassador in Harare (Ms Deborah Bronnert)) out of the fear that he would risk committing the prosecutable crime of perjury.’’
As such, the President said, Mr Tsvangirai’s petition had no legal basis whatsoever and should be disregarded and dismissed in its entirety with costs.
In terms of the law, an affidavit is evidence and all evidence must be sworn to. An applicant must take an oath before a notary public or commissioner of oaths, who must also countersign the documents.
Although Mr Tsvangirai claimed that his submissions were made under oath, the President argues that the MDC-T leader had failed to file a sworn affidavit as required by law.
“His entire founding affidavit is a mere statement certified by Duduzile Legal Practitioners as ‘a true copy of the original’ but there is no original copy filed with this Honourable Court which is sworn to by the applicant.
“It is trite to mention that there is a difference of night and day between a sworn affidavit and a statement merely certified as a true copy of the original without being sworn to by the author of the statement.
“It appears that the applicant filed an unsworn statement after he must have been advised by his lawyers not to swear to falsehoods (given to him by the British ambassador in Harare) out of the fear that he would risk committing the prosecutable crime of perjury,” submitted the President.
The entire petition, President Mugabe argues, contains self indulgent generalisations, sweeping statements and outlandish exaggerations all of which are not made under oath.
“I would also like to place it on record that at the time the applicant filed his petition, he in fact, had no evidence whatsoever save for an unhelpful affidavit from one Tongai Matutu who was defeated in the election and a pamphlet of scandalous and unsubstantiated assertions,” President Mugabe said.
Section 59 of the Electoral Act permits persons who are illiterate, physically impaired or elderly to be assisted to vote upon request.
Ms Bronnert, however, appeared on SkyNews on August 4 claiming that of the 17 000 people who allegedly voted in an unnamed constituency, 10 000 had been assisted to vote, a claim that is repeated in toto in Mr Tsvangirai’s application.
Source: {Herald}
Leave a Reply