Chief moves to attach Tsvangirai property

HARARE- Chief Negomo, Luscious Chitsinde, has obtained a court confirmation to attach Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s property after he refused to pay a bogus fine for allegedly marrying in the sacred month of November.

Tsvangirai denied Zanu PF controlled media claims that he had customarily married Harare businesswoman Locadia Karimatsenga Tembo in November last year. He issued a statement saying he had only paid damages for getting her pregnant.

But Chief Negomo who is accused of being a Zanu PF puppet summoned Tsvangirai to his court claiming the PM had violated customary laws.

Exposing the Zanu PF plot, when Chief Negomo delivered the summons in Harare at the PM’s Charter House office, he was accompanied by Zanu PF MP for Mazowe North, Retired Major Cairo Mhandu who was described as an aide to the Chief.

Tsvangirai refused to attend a subsequent court hearing with his lawyers stating that Chief Negomo had no jurisdiction over their client.

“From a legal point Tsvangirai will not appear before your court because the entire process is manifestly illegal and void. It appears to us that you have not read and or that you do not understand the law, province and your limits as a traditional Chief.” Tsvangirai’s lawyers wrote.

Chief Negomo, eventually fined the MDC-T leader two cows, two sheep, 10 metres of white cloth and a ball of snuff. The chief has now registered his judgment with the Bindura Magistrates’ Courts and the provincial magistrate endorsed it on December 30 last year.

The confirmation means Chief Negomo’s judgment now belongs to the Bindura magistrate. Chief Negomo will now have to instruct the Messenger of Court or the Deputy Sheriff to attach the PM’s property.

The Messenger of Court or the Deputy Sheriff will then seek a writ of execution from the courts after which they can proceed and attach the property.

In an interview at his court at Gweshe Business Centre on Saturday, Chief Negomo said he will soon attach the PM’s property and that of his in-laws. This follows the lapse of 30 days within which the two families were supposed to pay the fines.

“Both families (Tsvangirai and Karimatsenga) were found guilty, but up to now they have not yet paid the fines. We were waiting for these court papers and since we now have them, very soon we will attach their property. I am going to sit with my aides and agree on the dates as and when we should go and attach the property,” he said.

Last year in December Deputy Minister of Local Government, Sesel Zvidzai whose ministry over-sees the operations of chiefs and traditional leaders, said Chief Negomo did not have jurisdiction over the matter.

He said Christon Bank, home to the family of the PM’s alleged ‘wife’ Locadia Karimatsenga Tembo, did not fall under the chief. Zvidzai said Christon Bank is under Mazowe Rural District Council and is a resettlement area that has “not been placed under jurisdiction of any appropriate Chieftainship.”

Zvidzai said the Ministry was still working on placing such areas under the appropriate chiefs.

“This process is difficult and very sensitive as it revisits issues around who is the legitimate traditional leader for the resettlement area under question. The process involves district administrators, chiefs with common boundaries and other chiefs who were removed by the colonial regime for refusing to cooperate,” he said.

Zvidzai said the attempt by Chief Negomo to summon the PM was ‘mischievous’ and “will naturally invite action from the Ministry.”

Tsvangirai’s party has also raised concerns over the fact that Chief Negomo was booked into a 5 star hotel in Harare and had invited the state media to capture, in pictures, the serving of the summons on the PM. The MDC-T accused the chief of being used by ZANU PF to score cheap political points.