EMBATTLED Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume, has taken Local Government minister July Moyo to court challenging his recall from council last week.
Mafume lodged an application with the High Court together with the duo of Simon Chabuka and Arnold Dube, who were also dismissed by the minister.
The minister is cited as the first respondent while Harare City Town Clerk and his Mutare and Bulawayo counterparts are second to fourth respondents respectively.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) are fifth and sixth respondents in the matter.
Moyo confirmed the suspension of the three members of the People’s Democratic Party in his March 28 letter and advised council officials through the town clerks to notify the Zec of the vacancies in terms of the Electoral Act.
However, the three want Moyo’s communique rendered null and void as they argued that they did not join the Nelson Chamisa led Citizens Coalition for Change.
Mafume argued that they belong to the party led by Tendai Biiti (PDP), which had not recalled them.
“In so announcing our expulsion by a party other than PDP led by Biti as its president and Chikwinya as its SG, Moyo’s instruction to the town clerks is invalid as it is based on an illegality,” submitted Mafume in his court application.
“In this regard, Moyo and those who communicated with him are violating our choice by seeking to ascribe us membership of a political party that is alien to us and is certainly not the PDP led by Biti and Chikwinya that we have always been members of since 2017.
“In addition, we seek consequential relief to the effect that the alleged communication given to the first respondent and his subsequent letter to the second to fourth respondents dated March 28, 2022 or any other dates alleging that there were vacancies in Ward 17, Ward 12 and Ward 24, is null and void to the extent that it was issued by a political party other than the PDFP party led by Biti as its president and Settlement Chikwinya as its secretary-general.”
Mafume is currently facing corruption charges with the matter still pending at the courts.