VICE President Kembo Mohadi has approached the High Court seeking condonation after he failed to respond to his ex-wife Tambudzani’s application in which she was seeking reversal of a ruling granting him a protection order.
Through his lawyer, Mohadi said he would have responded on time but got confused since they have many legal cases pending.
He cited the magistrate, Noah Gwatidzo, Tambudzani, Irene and Abigail Mohadi as well as Michael Ambrose as respondents.
“This is an application for the filing heads of argument by the applicant in HC/9929/18 out of time to be condoned and for the bar currently operating against the applicant to be uplifted,” reads a declaration by Mohadi’s lawyer Reliance Ndou.
Ndou took the blame.
“The parties in casu have been embroiled in several legal cases. Tambudzani filed an application for review against the decision of Gwatidzo. When Tambudzani filed her heads in HC/9929/18 they were mistakenly placed in the file for HC 8991/18.
“Heads of argument for HC 9929/18 were filed. However, heads of arguments for HC8991/18 were not filed due to my mistake as I failed to realise in time that these were two different cases in which decisions by the same magistrate were being brought under review,” the lawyer said, adding it was his mistake.
“I only realised this mistake when the prescribed time period within which the applicant’s heads of argument that is on the 6th day of June 2019 and filed the applicant’s heads of argument on the 10th day of June 2019 out of time.”
Tambudzani pulled yet another stunt last year after she dragged the Magistrate who dealt with her husband’s application for a protection order, Gwatidzo, to the High Court, accusing the court official of bungling legal procedures.
She was seeking an order reviewing the magistrate’s decision.
Mohadi and his wife Tambudzani are going through an acrimonious divorce, in a case which started in September 2017, when the Vice President, who was then State Security Minister, petitioned the High Court in Bulawayo seeking nullification of the couple’s marriage, claiming their marriage had irretrievably broken down.
But in August last year, Mohadi applied for the divorce matter to be transferred to Harare High Court where determination is still pending.
Since then, the two have been in and out of court, with different applications and, at one point, Mohadi approached the Civil Court seeking a protection order, which was granted in his favour.
Tambudzani, however, applied for a review of the court ruling, after which Mohadi filed another application for contempt of court against his wife.
But Tambudzani claims the protection order case was improperly handled.
Tambudzani has also filed other pending cases, which include a demand for $13 000 for maintenance every month pending the finalisation of the divorce case.
She has also sued Mohadi’s new wife Juliet Mutavhatsindi for $1,5 million for adultery damages.
