by Jasper Hloka
Zimbabweans yesterday had a rare treat from a spectacular showcase of talent from the country’s legal fraternity as MDC Alliance’s advocate, Thabani Mpofu, fret to sustain that party’s leader, Nelson Chamisa’s Constitutional Court challenge against President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The past weeks had been decorated by Chamisa’s hype on his legal arsenal which he claimed was galvanised by overwhelming evidence against the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), Zanu PF and President Mnangagwa over alleged electoral fraud. Events of yesterday, however, proved that facts have an upper hand over eloquence.
The Alliance’s claims turned out to be a dumb squib resulting in morale at MDC Alliance’s camp extinguishing drastically. Political bantering from Chamisa had misled the hopeful supporters of the Alliance, but that did not stop the stubbornness of facts to tear apart the Alliance’s legal team.
University of Zimbabwe law students marvelled at the proceedings with some taking time to share their observations with The Harare Post. Mukudzei Mashavira, thrilled with the presentations, gave out that “given proper facts and evidence, Mpofu would have done better. His arguments as the judges noted were charged with eloquence, but evolved on secondary evidence which is not sufficiently sustaining.”
Mashavira added that “personally I began to smell a rat when Mpofu and his client went about chorusing on their preparedness. It felt political than legal and exposed their uncertainties which they (I think) thought would cover up for the grey patches in their challenge.”
The show by the Alliance’s lawyers failed to live up to the expectations of Zimbabweans who felt they would see presentations of V11 forms with alleged accurate data, but alas it was all suppositions and hypothetical submissions.
Meanwhile, morale is low in the MDC Alliance camp. A snap survey by this publication on social media forum has shown that there is a climb down by pro-opposition social media activists, mainly on Twitter and WhatsApp.
