NORTON MP Temba Mliswa (independent) has lost three vehicles that are set to go under the hammer after failing to settle $136 000 legal costs arising from a matter he lost to a private property developer and Norton Town Council.
Mliswa’s vehicles, a Mercedes-Benz (registration number AEK 1985), a Mazda T3500 truck (registration number ABG 8923) and a Vintage Dodge (registration number ACB 8557), were attached by the Sheriff of the High Court on November 1, 2018 and are set to be removed on November 7, 2018 for sale in execution.
According to the court papers, the $136 000 debt arises from costs that were awarded to Maparahwe Properties (Pvt) Ltd and Norton Town Council in a matter in which Mliswa and his 629 co-applicants lost a High Court case involving land invasion in Kingsdale.
Mliswa has since petitioned the High Court seeking an order to interdict the Sheriff, the property developer Maparahwe Properties and Norton Town Council from proceeding with the sale of his vehicles.
“This is an extremely urgent application seeking a stay of the removal of my movable assets being three motor vehicles that were attached by the first respondent (Sheriff) on November 1, 2018. The first respondent wants to remove the aforesaid motor vehicles on November 7, 2018 for purposes of a sale in execution. The assets are a Mercedes-Benz AEK 1985, Mazda T3500 ABG 8923 and Vintage Dodge ACB 8557,” Mliswa said in his founding affidavit.
“The debt at the centre of this matter arises from costs that were awarded to Maparahwe Properties (Pvt) Ltd and Norton Town Council in HC 4619/17. In this matter, there were 630 applicants, with Mliswa as a Member of Parliament for the area in question,”
After successfully defending the land impasse, Maparahwe Properties and Norton Town Council were awarded costs, which culminated in a matter in which Mliswa lost his vehicles.
In his founding affidavit filed in an urgent chamber application on Monday this week, Mliswa said the costs in the matter under HC4619/17 were not awarded jointly, but each applicant (629) had an obligation to pay his or her proportionate share of the costs and the maximum amount of each being $216.
“The costs in HC4619/17 were not awarded jointly, each applicant has an obligation to pay his or her proportionate share of the costs and the maximum amount of each applicant is $216 but the Maparahwe Properties and Norton Town Council are in a bid to recover all the cost from Mliswa,” the affidavit read.
Mliswa further said he joined the 629 Norton residents in Kingsdale and an organisation known as Norton Residents’ Development Trust (NRDT) when they petitioned the court under case number 4619/17 challenging countless eviction orders against the residents at the instance of the property developer.
He said Norton Town Council was just joined as a convenient party alongside two government ministers (Lands and Rural resettlement and Local Government) and he had already paid $3 227 towards the claimed costs.
“For reasons best known to themselves, the second and third respondents have just picked me and want me to pay much more than I am required by the law to pay. Accordingly, my assets cannot be attached, let alone removed on account of the costs in HC 4619/17,” the legislator said.
Mliswa is also being sued for defamation by his Chivi South counterpart, Killer Zivhu, who is seeking $1 million compensation for labelling him “a thief and a corrupt individual” on microblogging social media site Twitter.
Mliswa this week claimed the Twitter account used to defame Zivhu was not his.
According to Zivhu, Mliswa, whose Twitter handle “Hon. Temba P. Mliswa @TembaMliswa”, has since April 25, 2017 to date been using the social media platform to tweet defamatory statements against him, insinuating that he is a thief and a corrupt individual.
“… The defendant [Mliswa] has been using the social media platform to tweet defamatory statements implicating (sic) that the plaintiff [Zivhu] is corrupt and that he is a thief who corruptly acquired land in Norton which he has failed to develop and sells dubious stands to Galloway residents and does not provide them with title deeds,” Zivhu said in his declaration
