The Supreme Court has granted an application by former cabinet minister, Ignatius Chombo to have his appeal on a High Court ruling heard on urgent basis.
Chombo through his lawyers Lovemore Madhuku and Tungamirai Muganhiri is seeking an order for the clerk of court to release his passport which they confiscated through State Security agents.
The former minister is appealing against a High Court ruling that was made by a judge to the effect that the Magistrates’ Court is well equipped to enforce its own rulings.
The ruling leaves the desperate Chombo who is said to be a cancer patient in a tight spot as a magistrate court ruled that it had no jurisdiction to grant the application he sought.
The appeal is set to be heard on June 18 at the Supreme Court.
Chombo is citing the NPA, clerk of court, Harare Magistrate Court, magistrate Barbra Mateko and magistrate Lazini Ncube as respondents.
The passport in question was released as per the court order and on May 12 at Robert Mugabe International Airport, while Chombo had completed all departure formalities and ready to board his flight to South Africa, an unknown man believed to be a State agent took his passport for what he described as “security checks” and disappeared.
The alleged State agent did not return the passport to Chombo making it impossible for him and his family to travel for his medical treatment. Chombo through his lawyers argued that this caused serious inconveniences to the airline, other passengers, his doctors in South Africa as well as his family.
The application also states that the passport that had been unlawfully taken away from him by the State agent, was accepted by the clerk of court in very unclear circumstances and it is still in their custody as they have refused to release it.
He went on to make an application for a mandamus before Ncube to compel the clerk of court to release the passport but the application was dismissed on the basis that that court he had no jurisdiction to do so.
