Staff Reporter

Harare North legislator Mr Allan Norman Markham has castigated the Local Government and Public Works Minister July Moyo accusing him of failing to uphold the Constitution.

In his answering affidavit in a matter which he is seeking reversal of a land deal between the City of Harare and controversial Augur Investments, Markham says the Minister’s action in the matter are motivated by corruption.

“It is my respectful contention that Minister July Moyo has failed Zimbabwe. He has failed to uphold the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

“He has failed to be transparent. He has failed to persuade this court (High Court) that his actions are not motivated by anything other than corruption. He is an embarrassment to the country and to the President,” said Markham.

He said the suggestion by the Minister in his opposing affidavit that he (Markham 1st Applicant) and Jacob Pikicha (3rd Applicant) had no capacity to seek reversal of the controversial deal were shocking.

“The suggestion that a resident of Harare, a former Councilor of the City of Harare, a Member of Parliament, has no locus standi to bring proceedings that raises a public interest matter of housing, of development, of good governance, of land in country which went to war for land, is shocking and unbelievable.

“That a Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe can seek to bar a litigant from court, from asserting his rights, is a reflection on the quality of that Minister.

“The suggestion that a serving scheme which the 1st Applicant knows personally does not have a locus standi to question the unfair and illegal allocation of housing land to a rogue company, is shocking and unbelievable.
“The suggestion that a homeless and landless man, the 3rd Applicant cannot have a locus standi to challenge unlawful dispossession of public land, is again shocking. What planet does Minister July Moyo comes from?” Markham said.