The government has lodged an appeal against the Justice Barnabas Nyamadzabo ruling, where he delivered a verdict in favour of the former minister Dr Kefentse Mzwinila in one of his many cases currently before the courts.
Mzwinila was challenging the state’s decision to flag his family passports.
Justice Nyamadzabo ruled in favour of Mzwinila despite the fact that the state had indicated it had reasonable grounds to flag his passport and that of his family while investigating him for possible corruption, money laundering and unexplained wealth.
However, when delivering the ruling recently, Nyamadzabo stated that the state acted illegally when searching and seizing his properties despite that it was not in the reliefs sought by the former minister.
As a result, the state, through the office of the Attorney General has filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal(CoA), citing that Nyamadzabo erred in his judgement, which it says was legally flawed.
In a press release, government attorney Osego Garebamono stated that the state holds the view that the lower court erred in both its findings and the relief it granted.
One of the central grounds of appeal, according to the Attorney General, is that the court a quo granted orders that were not sought by the applicant, Mzwinila, thereby exceeding the scope of the issues placed before it.
The Attorney General’s Chambers maintain that the appeal is necessary to allow the apex court to clarify the applicable legal principles and to correct what the government considers to be material misdirections by the lower court. The matter will now proceed to the highest court, whose determination is expected to bring finality to the dispute.
