Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. HARARE, Dec. 3 (NewsDay Live) – There was comic relief at the Supreme Court in the capital on Friday after a Mutare man, Daniel Moyana alias Daniel Mahonye, wept uncontrollably during an appeal hearing held at the Supreme Court after losing a case.
Moyana burst into a loud cry after it became apparent to him that he was losing his appeal and that his lawyer Bright Mudau had dumped him.
He had to be immediately whisked out of the court by a Sergeant at Arms (a police officer who maintains order in court).
Moyana, who is the managing director for Clearsky Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd, a Mutare-based tax consultancy firm which also trades as Poolvest Financial Services, had earlier turned up at the Supreme Court as a self–actor and sought to represent Poolvest in a case against Akin Investments (Pvt) Ltd under case number SC 521/25, but was advised that he could not do so as the company could only be represented by lawyers at the superior court.
Moyana, it turned out, had apparently been dumped by Mudau before he frantically sought to engage services of lawyers who were at the final Court of appeal.
He seemed to have had luckily landed on an advocate (name withheld) who agreed to render him emergency rescue services, but that again failed as the judges insisted to hear a proper explanation why his lawyers who had prepared the appeal did not come to court and address them.
This led to the case being stood down to allow Moyana to bring his lawyer.
When the court finally resumed business in the afternoon, Mudau tried to argue the matter before a Supreme Court bench, but faced difficult times answering the questions being thrown at him by the judges, which prompted Moyana to raise his hand and seek to interject unsuccessfully as he had to be reminded that he had no right of audience before the court and he could only speak through his lawyer.
However, as the situation went off the tracks, Moyana tried again to interject, raising his hand, but was declined an opportunity to speak, after which he burst out in tears as he wept uncontrollably.
Fortunately, the Sergeant at Arms was at hand to whisk him out of the court room and restore order for the case to continue uninterrupted.
The background of the case is that sometime in 2020, his company took Akin Investments (Pvt) Ltd, a diamond polishing company owned by Mutare business mogul Muzzefer Khan, to the High Court sitting at Mutare seeking to recover US$110 000 which he claimed was moneys owed to Clearsky for doing Zimbabwe Revenue Authority returns, tax reductions on royalties and income tax.
In his court papers filed at Mutare under Case number HCMT 277/20, Moyana alleged that his company had entered into a verbal agreement for the provision of financial/tax services with Khan’s firm way back in 2015 and was to be paid upon invoicing for tax returns and at the rate of 10% for tax reduction services.
The claim was heavily refuted and contested by Khan, who produced a written agreement between Poolvest and Akin Investments at a monthly rate of US$100 for all services Poolvest was to offer his firm.
He alleged in his defence that Moyana was acting fraudulently and wanted to unjustly get enriched by claiming moneys his company was not entitled to.
Khan further refuted the claim that Moyana’s company had rendered any tax reduction services.
The case in the High Court, which took long to conclude, was finally tried on May 15, 2025 by Justice Sijabuliso Siziba, who rendered his judgment on June 16, 2025 dismissing Moyana’s claim on the basis that as a witness who testified on behalf of Poolvest, he had failed to produce evidence which, on a balance of probabilities, showed that it was engaged by Akin Investments on the terms alleged in its papers, leading to the appeal case being filed by Moyana’s company on July 7, 2025.
The appeal was dismissed with costs, further complicating matters for Moyana, who already was having a bad day in court.
Advocate J Sithole of the Chambers of the Advocates of Zimbabwe instructed by Maunga Maanda and Associates appeared for Akin Investments.
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