In a landmark ruling, the High Court has granted a garnishee order or $1.6 Million against the Ministry of Home Affairs. The High Court instructed the finance ministry to pay a Mutare based business person, Tendai Blessing Mangwiro the money, taking it out of the 2017 budget allocated to Home Affairs. Mangwiro had the money seized from him by police in 2008.
The Judgement was handed down by Justice Clement Phiri.
Mangwiro, who has been fighting for over 5 years to recover his money, approached the High Court seeking an order to garnish Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) bank accounts. Earlier, he had approached the same court seeking former Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo’s arrest for contempt of court.
This is not Mangwiro’s first court victory over the same case. He has won several court applications for ZRP to release the money but has not received payment.
This time the High Court has additionally ordered that should the respondents fail to abide by the order of the court and the sheriff’s costs, the Minister of Home Affairs 2018 budget allocation vote will be garnished to satisfy the previously defied court orders.
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