Lawyer Wapona asks court to dismiss  ex-MCP chairpersons case: ‘The sued wrong people’

Lawyer representing Malawi Congress Party (MCP) in the on going case in which  some former disgruntled district chairmen are calling for an emergency convention, Wapona Kita has asked the Lilongwe High Court to dismiss the case as the concerned applicants sued wrong persons.

At least 27 former district chairpersons, led by then Dedza Valley chairperson Lackson Khamalatha, are challenging the inclusion of new NEC members by MCP president Lazarus Chakwera in November last year which has become a cause of problems in the party.

Making his last submissions before the presiding judge,Justice Charles Michael Mkandawire, Kita told the court that the applicants sued wrong people as they sued MCP Secretary General Gustav Kaliwo and MCP  as first and second defendants to theecase calling for emergency convention.

According to Kita, the decision which was made on 27th August , 2015 reshuffling the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party was not made by the Secretary General of MCP and there is no evidence tendered in court by the applicants to show that there was any decision made by Kaliwo.

“My lord the burden of proof is on the applicants to price it in court , and from all witnesses who testified in this court no one showed or proved that the party’s SG made any decision or direction that this court must rule on. The court must therefore decide on evidence before it not what it knows,”Kita argued.

He told the court that the applicants sued wrong people as the decision to reshuffle the NEC wasn’t done by the Secretary General or NEC but Lazarus Chakwera in his own capacity as President of the party hence they were supposed to sue Chakwera so that he must defend his decision if at all there’s anything to defend .

Kita argued that the case is a political in nature and also that according to the party’s constitution section 65 says all disputes must first be solved internally through the office of SG to NEC and If one is not satisfied can therefore appeal to the convention but the applicants never followed all that process as there’s no evidence in court to show that they went through all that process.
He told the court that there’s no evidence in the court that indeed MCP has 41 district committee as no evidence was rendered in the court by the applicants hence it will be difficult to believe that the number of chairmen who signned the petition they form half of the party’s district committees.

Kita then asked the court to dismiss the case in grounds that they sued wrong people and that also failed to prove beyond the reasonable doubt on its case as there’s no evidence to substantiate most of their claims in their application.

In his response,lawyer representing disgruntled district chairmen, Wesley Namasala told the court that he was ambushed by his counterpart’s claim of suing wrong people arguing it would have been raised at preliminary stage not to the end of the case arguing even though the decision was made by Chakwera it was signed in the statetement  by Kaliwo as secretary general.

Justice  Mkandawire has reserved his rulling to a later date to be communicated to both parties soon after festive holiday

Sharing is caring!