By 
The Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa (Zaoga) church is urgently seeking a High Court reprieve to halt its eviction from land in Bindura where it built the multimillion-dollar Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University (ZEGU).
This development follows a default judgment granted last week in favor of businessman Mr. Charles Chakumba, who holds mining claims on the same land.
Justice Joseph Musakwa issued the default order after Zaoga and its legal representatives failed to appear for a scheduled pre-trial conference.
By Vongai Masuka
Mr. Chakumba, who was allocated gold claims 31 and 32 at Barasse Farm in 1994 by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development, successfully pursued the default judgment through his legal team at Tavenhave and Machingauta Legal Practitioners.
The land in question was also allocated to Zaoga by the Bindura municipality in 2010 for the construction of ZEGU.
Mr. Chakumba contends that the presence of the university’s extensive infrastructure is impeding his legally sanctioned gold mining operations.
The default judgment necessitates the demolition of the university’s state-of-the-art facilities to allow Mr. Chakumba to proceed with his mining activities.
In response, Zaoga, through its lawyers Debwe and Partners, filed an urgent chamber application seeking a stay of execution of the eviction order.
The church argues that its non-attendance at the pre-trial conference was due to an administrative error by their lawyers’ secretary, who allegedly misfiled the hearing notice, recording the date as March 16, 2016, instead of the actual date of March 3, 2016.
“Applicant (church) contends that the said judgment was obtained in default at the pre-trial conference as a result of a genuine mistake on the part of its legal practitioners’ secretary who upon service of the pre-trial conference notice, diarised it for March 16 instead of March 3 2016,” court documents reveal.
Zaoga claims it only became aware of the eviction order on March 7 through a newspaper report in The Herald.
The church has since filed an application for the rescission of the default judgment and is seeking a temporary interdict to prevent Mr. Chakumba from evicting the university, its staff, and students while the rescission application is being considered.
According to summons issued by Mr. Chakumba in August of the previous year, he asserted his legitimate ownership of the mining claims and accused Zaoga of obstructing his mining rights.
Zaoga maintains it was legitimately allocated the land by the Bindura municipality for the university’s establishment in 2008, while Mr. Chakumba argues that the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development has already resolved the dispute in his favor, declaring him the rightful owner of the mining claims.
He further stated that despite this determination, Zaoga has refused to vacate the land and continues to interfere with his mining operations, leading him to pursue legal action for eviction.
In its opposing arguments, the university contended that the lawsuit should be dismissed based on the Prescription Act, arguing that Mr. Chakumba’s summons were filed more than three years after he allegedly became aware of ZEGU’s occupation of the land in February 2010.
The church claims Mr. Chakumba did not object to the university project during public consultations conducted in January 2010 for an Environmental Impact Assessment.
Comments