Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, a lawyer by profession, has blasted the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa for trying to intimidate the Constitutional Court bench which hears his case to reverse Emmerson Mnangagwa’s win in the 30 July elections on Wednesday.
Chamisa today told a press conference that he won the 30 July elections so Mnangagwa should concede defeat for the country to move forward.
According to the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, Chinamasa said Chamisa was merely trying to intimidate the Court but he warned that his utterances were not empty given the tragic events of 1 August in which six people lost their lives while 14 others were injured.
“His latest pronouncements which are very much his character show a continued pre-disposition towards political violence, and well calculated attempts at poisoning the environment for a fair trial by instilling fear in judges so that they may subvert the law in his favour,” Chinamasa said.
“It defies legal sense why a person who is an officer of the court seeks to make extra-judicial pronouncements while still making court submissions at the same time, and ahead of due process only two days away…..
“Indeed this leaves right-thinking people wondering why he submitted himself to court processes in which he lacks confidence and what is more, when he disrespectfully seeks to be at once a complainant and a judge in his own case.
“Confident litigants respect court processes and avoid running propaganda campaigns against the bench and their opponents. Such unlawful conduct further fortifies the long held view that Chamisa and his alliance are not looking for justice but to subvert and reverse the verdict which the people of Zimbabwe expressed through the ballot box on 30 July 2018.”
Chinamasa said that Zimbabwe’s peace will not be undermined by bitter losers who think they can secure through acts of lawlessness what people of Zimbabwe have denied them through a free, fair and transparent credible democratic process.
Chamisa was entitled to apply for the reopening of the ballot boxes within 48 hours after the announcement of the results for a recount but he did not do so because he knew that he had lost.
“He did not make the application because he knew he had lost the election. Instead, he has chosen to go on a smear campaign tarnishing the electoral and judicial systems. In Chamisa’s own words, he has chosen to throw sand into the meal [kukanda majecha musadza],” he said.
Chinamasa urged those who voted for Chamisa to accept defeat for the country to move on, adding that they should not succumb to the incitement by MDC Alliance leaders.
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