Walter Magaya to appear before High Court in January
Brenna Matendere
Harare—The High Court has set down for hearing in January, a long-standing application seeking to restrain Walter Magaya from undertaking any projects in Chitungwiza.
Magaya is leader of one of Zimbabwe’s biggest Pentecostal churches, Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries (PhD).
The Chitungwiza Residents Trust (CHITREST) filed the application in June this year, seeking to bar Magaya’s company, Wistmer Investments (Pvt) Ltd, from carrying out any of its planned projects without official municipal approval.
Wistmer Investments was pushing to roll out a comprehensive 10-year development plan that purports to turn Chitungwiza into a “smart and green city”.
Central government approved the deal but unprocedurally excluded the Chitungwiza municipality.
The development comes after lawyers representing the residents formally complained about delays in the matter that was filed on 25 June as an urgent court application.
CHITREST is a duly registered organisation and primarily lobbies for the promotion and protection of community rights in Chitungwiza.
Delays in setting the case had led to the suspicion that the High Court might have been influenced by the popular prophet to sweep it under the carpet.
In an update to this publication on Monday, 9 December, Innocent Nderere of Scanlen and Holderness Legal Practitioners, a law firm representing CHITREST, said the High Court authorities have now assured him that the matter will be heard in January.
He also revealed that the record for the hearing had also been consolidated.
“They (High Court) indicated that it will be set down for hearing in January. I inquired last week, and I’m pleased to inform you that the record has been consolidated for this hearing. We are likely to have the hearing during the first week of January,” Nderere told NewsHub.
Alice Kuvheya, the CHITREST director, said in an interview that, while the residents were not happy with the delay in hearing the matter, they now expect the wheels of justice to turn faster.
“Residents are not happy with the delay and hope the law will take its cause as soon as possible without fear or favour,” she told NewsHub.
In the application, CHITREST is the first applicant and its director, Kuvheya, the second.
Wistmer Investments is cited as the respondent.
The applicants note: “This is an application for an interdict or an order to restrain the respondent, as well as any individuals acting on its behalf, from undertaking any projects or development initiatives within Chitungwiza without following the due process and obtaining the necessary approvals from the Chitungwiza municipality.”
CHITREST said, by seeking the order against Wistmer, it was acting in the public interest and in line with Section 85(1) of the constitution that empowers any bona fide person who feels a fundamental right is being infringed to approach the courts for redress.
In its application, CHITREST noted that the Chitungwiza municipality rejected Magaya’s proposal for the master plan last April.
The respondent had committed to fund the entire process of preparing the Chitungwiza master plan, which entails providing resources to a team of technical experts involved in the planned “smart city” project.
All 33 councillors at the municipality rejected the proposal because they felt that the Memorandum of Agreement terms were unfavourable to Chitungwiza.
“I wish to record that, despite the aforementioned circumstances, the respondent persisted in carrying out developments within Chitungwiza without adhering to the necessary procedures or obtaining approval from Chitungwiza Municipality,” states Kuvheya in her affidavit.
She also accused the respondent of setting up an aquifer project in Jonasi Village in Seke earlier, again without council approval.
Kuvheya submitted in the court application that the proposed master plan would cause environmental damage, disruption of existing infrastructure and potential violations of local regulations.
“I am informed that such actions contravene Section 93 of the Constitution, which enshrines environmental rights as inviolable human rights that the State has a duty to uphold and protect. The State is required to take reasonable measures, within its available resources, to progressively realise these rights and balance environmental protection with sustainable economic and social development.
“The community members have since been subjected to dangerous debris and noise pollution as a direct aftermath of the 1st Respondent’s illegal actions,” submits Kuvheya in the court application.
The Local Government ministry has for years interfered with the operations of mostly opposition-run councils to advance the interests of the ruling Zanu PF at the expense of public welfare.
Such interference includes the imposition of the Geo Pomona waste-to-energy project on the City of Harare.
Government wrested the council-owned Pomona dumpsite near Borrowdale and handed it over to Geo Pomona Waste Management that is fronted by Dilesh Nguwaya.
In 2020, Nguwaya was named in a Covid-19 procurement scandal that also led to the expulsion of then Health minister, Obadiah Moyo.
Nguwaya had no history in waste management.