VP Kembo Mohadi Sued over 2009 assault of ‘anti-Mugabe’ Activist

Vice President Kembo Dugish Mohadi is being sued by a Harare-based activist who was abducted, unlawfully detained and assaulted by police after having been accused of trying to topple eventually ousted late Zimbabwean despot Robert Mugabe, 11 years ago.

The incident occurred in 2009 when the incumbent co-deputy president was still Minister of Home Affairs in the late long-ruling Mugabe’s Government of National Unity (GNU) which also accomodated the opposition parties.

The activist, Pascal Gonzo who is with the Zimbabwe Peace Project, is now demanding a whopping US$80 000 in damages from ten co-respondents, with Mohadi cited as the first.

Gonzo also cited Mohadi’s then GNU compatriot in the Home Affairs ministry, Giles Mutsekiwa from the opposition MDC-T, as the second respondent.

The other respondents include former Commissioner General of Police Augustine Chihuri, ex-CIO boss Happyton Bonyongwe, Patrick Chinamasa, Dydmus Mutasa, incumbent police publicist Senior Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi, Chief Superintendent Makedenge and Magwenzi, Detective Chief Inspector Mpofu and Asher Tapfumaneyi.

Gonzo last week filed a contempt of court order at the High Court against the police for failing to pay him the $80 000 damages albeit a November 2019 legal verdict in his favour.

According to Gonzo’s founding affidavit, the High Court last year issued an order by consent under case number HC3116/09 compelling the cited respondents to pay him the stipulated amount.

Yet, Gonzo submitted, the cited respondents are yet to honour the High Court order as testified by their failure to pay him US$80 000 in damages in perceived defiance of the ruling.

The stipulated 30-day period for the payment of damages since the ruling was made last November has long lapsed and the applicant also implored on the courts of justice to take punitive measures against Mohadi and company.

Gonzo also told the court that Mohadi and the other cited respondents are yet to honour their legal obligations despite the fact that he furnished them with his bank account details, through his lawyers.

“There can be no doubt that the respondents have knowledge of the judgment, it having been entered into by consent and in view of the deed of settlement entered into between the parties. The respondents have not proffered any explanation for their failure to comply with the clear terms of the court order and deed of settlement,” Gonzo said.

“As a consequence they must be directed to pay US80 000 together with interests at the prescribed rate from the date of service of summons to the date of payment in full and cost of suit on a legal practitioner and client scale within 14 days of this order failing which they must be committed to imprisonment for 90 days, or until such a time that their contempt is purged,” the court heard.

He also said the respondents and ‘those acting through them abducted and tortured me without any recourse to law including court orders’.

“They have no regard to the law. They can’t even fulfill their own undertakings,” he submitted.

agencies

Additional Reporting: Zwnews