Judgment in Grace Mugabe case reserved

He said it is understandable that they would oppose the review proceedings, but in terms of the law they had no legal standing at this point.

Labuschagne said all they want at this stage, is for Grace Mugabe to know about the pending review application.

He said he had asked the embassy whether they could serve the application on it and that they then bring it to her attention, but they never received an answer in this regard.

He said the next best thing is to serve the application on the office of the Zimbabwean president in Harare, as Grace Mugabe is married to the president, and is, therefore, a high profile person in that country.

In doing it this way, it could be assured that she did receive the notice, he said.

But counsel for the embassy of Zimbabwe, Simba Chitando, vehemently objected.

He said it was not the embassy or Zimbabwe’s duty to assist AfriForum in tracing Grace Mugabe and ensuring that she did receive notice of the application.

He said AfriForum did not follow the legal rules pertaining to serving a notice on a person in a foreign country.

One of the rules made it clear that applicants had to first establish where a party lived or worked before they applied to serve a notice.

Chitando said Grace Mugabe did not live or work at the presidency in Harare.

The judge reserved judgment on the issue of whether the embassy at this early stage had the right to intervene in the proceedings.

If the court ruled in favour of the embassy, it would mean that the application will be heard afresh, on an opposed basis.- IOL

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