Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga has been accused of trying to arm-twist the Judiciary by threatening Judge President Justice George Chiweshe and accusing him of allegedly leaking to the media a ruling on his messy divorce with his estranged wife, Marry Mubaiwa, before it was handed down in court.

By Richard Muponde /Everson Mushava

Last week, Chiwenga was ordered by the High Court, which falls under Justice Chiweshe, to surrender three minor children he illegally took from his embattled wife after engineering her arrest on allegations of trying to kill him.

But Chiwenga immediately appealed against the ruling, which also chastised him for being a threat to the constitutional order, by abusing his position as Vice-President to use the military to settle his divorce dispute.
Marry’s lawyers have already been invited to inspect the record of appeal, a few days after the notice of appeal was filed, a process that normally takes long.

Chiwenga, through his lawyers Manase and Manase Legal Practitioners, have written to Justice Chiweshe accusing him of being compromised as Marry’s relative, although the Judge President was not handling Chiwenga’s divorce case.
“Our client advises us that you are related to the applicant (Ms) Marry Mubaiwa, and she has made numerous bald assertions in public that you are related and have sorted and influenced all matters involving her in her favour to the prejudice of our clients,” part of the letter read.
“We, with respect, wish to register our client’s concern over allegations emanating from the said relationship with the applicant and complaining over the conduct of the applicant in accessing court judgments and orders before they are handed down to both litigants.”

Chiwenga accused Judge Chiweshe of leaking the ruling to the media before it was delivered to him, querying how the judgment was reported on by the media before it was handed down.
Chiwenga’s lawyers gave Justice Chiweshe 48 hours to respond to their concerns.

But Chiwenga’s complaint was viewed by political analysts as an attempt to usurp the independence of the Judiciary.
Former ZimRights director and political analyst Okay Machisa said Chiwenga had misdirected his complaint and was trying to interfere with the independence of the Judiciary.

“Let’s go to the basics. We have the three pillars of the State: The Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary. These are three independent bodies which don’t interfere with each other. Unfortunately, there’s now interference from the Executive,” Machisa said.

“What’s given is actually the breach of the law. To have the Executive interfering, it’s fundamentally wrong for the VP to do so. If you look at Justice (Christopher) Dube-Banda’s judgment, it’s clear on how the VP should behave, not to use the military in his personal divorce case.

“What he is doing is to arm-twist the Judiciary, especially Justice Chiweshe to resign. These are threats being given to the Judiciary. Let’s not talk of the Judge President, but the Judiciary which has been dented. Let’s observe the independence of the Judiciary and not force it to dance to our gallery. We are perpetually denting our Judiciary in the eyes of the world.”

Another analyst Eldred Masunungure concurred, saying Chiwenga’s military relationship with Justice Chiweshe was above all most important than that of the judge with Marry because of the judge’s military background.
“The judge’s relationship with Marry is superseded by the connection he has with the military, where he was an attorney and reporting to Chiwenga, where he has that allegiance to the military,” Masunungure said.

“You and I couldn’t have used that same avenue of going straight to the Judge President. On the other hand, is it not a matter of one’s lofty office being used to advance a personal household matter? Is he not overlapping the limits on which as a citizen he has the right to lodge a complaint?” he further queried.

When President Emmerson Mnangagwa returned from his brief exile in South Africa in 2017, he famously declared that the “voice of the people is the voice of God”, promising a new era of responsive governance.

Among other things, he promised to be a “listening President”, a far cry from the ivory tower kind of leadership that Zimbabwe had been subjected to for almost four decades.

When he first came to power, Mnangagwa made the right noises, said what was expected and the world, for a brief moment, thought he was a refreshing break from Zimbabwe’s very toxic past.

However, just over two years into his presidency, Mnangagwa has shown that he is anything but a “listening President” and that the haloed voice of the people is nothing more than a shout into the wind.

In one of the most brazen assaults on our move to create a democracy, Mnangagwa and his lieutenants have gone about proposing amendments to the Constitution, which will see more power vested in him instead of the people, whose voice is supposed to be the voice of God.

Zimbabwe’s Constitution was only adopted seven years ago by a majority of citizens at a referendum and it really boggles the mind why Mnangagwa and his party are so hell bent on amending such a young charter.

Among others, they want to dispense with the running mate clause before it is even implemented.

That clause was only supposed to kick in at the next elections, but before it has even been implemented, Zanu PF apparatchiks think they should get rid of it and we wonder why they even bothered going through the Constitution-making exercise.

The government is also getting rid of a provision that calls for public interviews for the Prosecutor-General, in favour of a murky process where the President, in consultation with the Judicial Services Commission, appoints the country’s top prosecutor.

Remember the one centre of power notion that was popular in Zanu PF around 2013 to 2017? It is being reincarnated in the most brazen way.

To ensure that the government just does not get international loans as it pleases, there is a provision that Parliament must approve such deals, but guess what, the new amendments want to get rid of this.
What we have here is a government that is increasingly running away from public scrutiny and accountability, preferring to literally work in the shadows.

All of a sudden, the voice of the people, and by extension their eyes, are no longer equivalent to those of God and instead have been relegated to an insignificant whisper.

Just look at the ministers that Mnangagwa appointed, particularly Finance minister Mthuli Ncube, who is the most tin-eared and obtuse of the lot.

Just last week, Ncube was in Davos, where he told an interviewer that the Zimbabwean government was investing in healthcare before incredulously claiming that our “health systems are strong”.

Really?

Junior doctors have been on strike for more than three months and are only beginning to troop back to work thanks to a donation from private citizens, Econet Wireless founder Strive and Tsitsi Masiyiwa’s Higher Life Foundation.

If our health systems were strong, there would never have been a strike in the first place and a fuming First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa would not have bothered visiting NatPharm — in borrowed robes — to issue threats to the company’s executives to start dispensing drugs to hospitals.

If our health sector was any strong, our leaders would not be spending so much time seeking medication in foreign lands, while ordinary people would not be sent home to die after visiting hospitals, where there are barely any doctors and the nurses look like they wish they were elsewhere.

Ncube is the epitome of an ivory tower dweller, who finds comfort in an echo chamber and is thoroughly detached from reality.

In 2019, he spent half the year with a megaphone, parroting his so-called budget surplus, which in the end turned out to be a massive deficit.

Suddenly, he is quiet about this.

When inflation figures did not suit his ends, he jettisoned them for a year, but that did not mean the prices started going down.

Teachers are unhappy and are demanding more money, but instead of listening to them, the old-age cliche of regime change is rehashed and we are told that some union leaders are puppets of the West.

Then there are the likes of Defence and War Veterans deputy minister Victor Matemadanda, the embodiment of a hired goon, who spends half his time threatening to crush demonstrations against the government.

Our Constitution permits such demonstrations against the government, that is the very essence of the voice of the people, but Matemadanda believes that his job is to muzzle this voice, without for a second considering that it is the voice of God, at least as per Mnangagwa.

When all else fails, instead of owning up and being honest, Zimbabweans are served with copious amounts of propaganda from probably the most incompetent Information ministry in recent times.

The propaganda is crass and does not serve any purpose.

We are told daily about mega deals, a roller meal taskforce and how the energy situation will improve, but nobody is being honest about what really is going on.

Honesty goes a long way in times of crisis, listening to people’s concerns goes even further, but this lot seems to be more interested in only the sound of their own voices and are not prepared to listen to anyone else.

The country is burning and Mnangagwa and his government ought to live by the mantra that they promised us: the voice of the people is the voice of God.

This entails listening to our concerns, no matter how uncomfortable and acting on them.

Right now Zimbabwe is in a terrible position and no amount of propaganda, half truths about investments and mistruths about growth will bring it back on track.

 Nqaba Matshazi is AMH’s head of digital. He writes in his personal capacity. Feedback: nmatshazi@alphamedia.co.zw. Twitter: @nqabamatshazi

THE hordes of vendors who have besieged Harare’s oldest suburb of Mbare to sell all manner of goods are a clear indication that Zimbabwe’s formal economy is now on life support, a situation which does not augur well for a government that largely survives on taxing formal businesses.

NewsDay Comment

Also, more fundamentally, the growing army of vendors is a serious indictment to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s 2018 “jobs, jobs, jobs” promise. If the informal sector jobs are, by any chance, the promised jobs, well and good; but they will do little to shore up government coffers because the informal economy is too grey to be regulated.

More worryingly, it is not only Mbare that has been overrun by vendors. All the country’s urban areas are swarming with vendors as millions try to eke out a living in an economy that is offering very few options.

Many are wondering why, two years into the new dispensation, no tangible jobs have been created in the formal sector. Where is government missing it? For all its former glory, Zimbabwe can surely not be turned into a vendors’ paradise.

While a lot has been said about the challenges facing the country as far as foreign direct investment (FDI) is concerned, some wish to argue that although FDI is critical in Zimbabwe’s overall economic revival, domestic investment should be the first issue the so-called new dispensation should attend to. The Zanu PF government appears to be completely oblivious to the fact that the country it inherited from racist former ruler Ian Smith was anchored by domestic companies.

Once upon a time, the country had locally-based giants which employed thousands. And these include Ziscosteel, Zimasco, ZimAlloys, ZimGlass, Lancashire Steel, the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), Sable Chemicals, Dunlop, the Cold Storage Company (CSC), Hunyani Pulp and Paper, Mutare Board and Paper Mills, Bata Shoe Company, David Whitehead, Kadoma Glass and many others into agriculture and mining. But all these were run down over years of poor government policies and downright economic mismanagement.

There is absolutely no justification why all those companies were allowed to disappear. Others are still around, but have become a pale shadow of their former selves. There is absolutely nothing stopping Zimbabwe from rebooting its former economic glory via domestic investment.

But corruption and downright economic mismanagement have dampened the domestic investor’s appetite as government has floundered at every turn when opportunities come knocking on the door for the local companies to partner foreign investors to revive the firm’s operations.

Examples of government blunders are plentiful. For decades, successive Cabinets have stalled construction of the Chirundu-Harare-Beitbridge Highway for strange reasons. For decades, successive Cabinets have dilly-dallied on the revival of iron maker Ziscosteel. For decades, successive Cabinets have stalled the revival of the NRZ after stitching several deals and unceremoniously ditching them. For decades, successive Cabinets have told the nation about the revival of such entities as CSC and Kadoma Glass, but all has come to naught. For decades, successive Cabinets have failed to revive the country’s economic mainstay of agriculture whose restoration will undoubtedly have profound ripple effects on the overall economy.

So is it any wonder that the country is turning into a vending nightmare with mostly imported goods on sale simply because the country has failed to reboot its productive sector to create real jobs? The biggest tragedy is that successive leaders have no guts to admit failure or actually do something about it.

LOCAL music promoter Samuel “Boss Werras” Saungweme (pictured) yesterday said his heart bled over the stifled growth of the creative industry in light of the high cost of music production and distribution.

BY WINSTONE ANTONIO

The Werras Entertainment boss told NewsDay Life & Style that he was pledging resources to help artistes across genres to deliver their music to the nation for free in the wake of expensive data for fans to download music from online platforms.

Technology has become an important platform for artistes as they share their music with fans as well as link them to their followers and new markets although Zimbabwe is yet to catch up with the rest of the world.

The internet has become a crucial tool for artistes as the new working space for those seeking to keep abreast with new trends in the industry, sharing their productions on different social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Itunes and YouTube.

Boss Werras said he was so passionate about the arts and culture industry that he was committed to contribute to its growth.

“As the masses are unable to download music online because of the ever-rising costs of data, as Werras Entertainment we are devoted to working with artistes across genres to deliver their music to the nation on CDs for free like we used to do before,” he said.

“I want to thank all the artistes who are releasing new stuff in this current harsh economy. Let’s stop dividing artistes and the industry and to my fellow promoters I say we have a challenge to deliver music to the people through various platforms.”

Boss Werras said his involvement in the arts sector was driven by passion and he did not expect rewards from the artistes he worked with.

“As Werras Entertainment, we are open to partnership with other artistes. We do it out of passion. We do not expect much or rewards from the artistes. We don’t get stressed like other promoters when they fail to get rewards from the artistes,” he said.

Werras Entertainment in partnership with National Arts Council of Zimbabwe and several musicians have been part of an initiative to educate people, mainly the youths on the HIV and Aids pandemic through music.

They have also organised several concerts across the country as edutainment to raise awareness on, and tackle, social issues affecting ghetto youths such as drug abuse, abortion and child marriages.

Sally Mugabe Central Children’s Hospital (formerly Harare Central Children’s Hospital) is set to receive from the Government of Japan a 300 million yen grant (US$2,75 million) for the procurement of critical equipment.

BY VANESSA GONYE

Speaking at the signing of the exchange of notes for the programme, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube said the initiative would help reduce infant mortality rate as well as provide healthcare to mothers and their children.

He said government had set up a plan that would see proper documentation of the urgent needs at the children’s hospital.

“The intervention by the government of Japan is in line with our national priorities as enunciated in the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP). The project also assists in achieving Social Development Goal number 3, which focuses on good healthcare and well-being,” Ncube said.

“I am pleased to advise that government has committed itself to a 90-day rapid plan, which will look into the urgent and immediate requirements of Harare Hospital through an allocation amounting to US$5 million.”
He applauded Japan for its continued support in complementing government’s efforts to provide and improve healthcare delivery in Zimbabwe.

Japan’s assistance to Harare Children’s Hospital dates back to 1998 with the construction of Harare Hospital Paediatric Unit/Harare Children’s Hospital, which it co-founded and equipped together with the Canadian government.
Japan, through JICA, is also currently providing technical assistance to the hospital staff to ensure efficient management of the hospital and a cleanly organised environment.

Japanese ambassador to Zimbabwe, Toshiyuki Iwado said his government prioritised the health sector in its strategy of development co-operation with Africa and Zimbabwe.

“At the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development, or TICAD7, held in August last year, African countries and Japan committed to promoting universal health coverage,” he said.

“Japan is also determined to improve access to primary healthcare for three million people in Africa. And for Zimbabwe to achieve further development in a sustainable manner, the strengthening of the health sector is vitally important.”

Iwado bemoaned the deteriorating standards in the country’s health sector.

“Zimbabwe used to have a well-established health sector, through its well-organised hospitals like Harare Children’s Hospital. However, it goes without saying that in recent years, those high standards have become compromised,” he said.

The hospital is set to receive medical equipment ranging from an X-ray system, bedside CCU monitors, an ultrasound scope, operation and examination equipment, among others.

ZIMBABWEANS should brace for extreme and unmitigated hardships this year due to a looming drought and economic meltdown, the National Consumer Rights Association (Nacora) has said.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

Nacora co-ordinator Effie Ncube told NewsDay Business that all indicators are pointing towards the wrong direction.

“As to expectations going forward, unfortunately all indicators are pointing towards the wrong direction.

Zimbabweans must therefore, brace themselves for a fight or for extreme and unmitigated hardships in 2020. It is auto-pilot into poverty and hunger,” he said.

“The economy is expected to contract by at least 15% or worse. Disposable incomes will collapse further. The cost of living will skyrocket. Unemployment will rise even further. Business and consumer confidence will decline even more,” he said.

Ncube said the Zimbabwean dollar would tumble to even catastrophic levels.

The Zimbabwe dollar has plunged more than 85% since it was reintroduced as legal tender last year, while the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth, according to the latest Economist Intelligence report, is expected to contract -12,9%.

“The little left of the manufacturing industry will disappear. Balance of payments will go deeper into the negative. Protected corruption will worsen,” Ncube said.

Ncube said the economic collapse of the country occasioned by political and economic confidence deficits had produced a huge erosion of standards of living not witnessed this decade.

Data from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency indicates that year-on-year inflation accelerated to 481,05% in November last year from 440,18% in the previous month.

“In the history of this country, only 2008 surpasses this collapses. Poverty, hunger, malnutrition and unemployment have worsened. More than any time since 2008, more households are living below the poverty datum line and millions are food and nutritionally insecure,” he said.

The country is reeling under economic hardships characterised by hyperinflation, low salaries, excessive power cuts, dire shortage of maize meal and low production, pushing citizens and businesses to the edge.

“Children are going to school and bed without food. More people than ever before need food aid this year. Thousands of children who were supposed to enrol for early child development this year will not because of poverty.”

“Thousands will drop out of school because parents cannot afford to pay school fees. The quality of education has declined due to lack of learning and teaching aides and low staff morale. Incomes across the board have been eroded to nothing. Healthcare has collapsed. The cost of living is just unbearable,” he said.

Sikandar Raza Butt produced his career best bowling figures so far to help Zimbabwe take a firm grip on their second cricket Test match against touring Sri Lanka after day three proceedings at the Harare Sports Club yesterday.

BY KEVIN MAPASURE

Raza took seven wickets at the expense of 113 as the visitors were bowled out for 293 with the innings wrapped up just before tea.

Carl Mumba, Donald Tiripano and Victor Nyauchi took the other three wickets for Zimbabwe.

The seam trio toiled for most of the day and probably deserved more than they got for their efforts, particularly Tiripano, who bowled 12 maidens from his 24 overs conceding just 30 runs while taking a single wicket.
After a long search for a wicket, Mumba took out the big fish when he claimed the scalp of danger man Angelo Mathews (64) with Regis Chakabva taking the catch behind.
Nyauchi retained figures of 1 for 40 after bowling 22.5 overs through the innings.

By close of play yesterday, Zimbabwe had reached 62 for 1 stretching their lead to 175 runs ahead of day four today.

Regis Chakabva and Prince Masvaure will resume on 14 and 26 respectively after play was stopped prematurely following rains. Zimbabwe lost Craig Ervine (13) who faced the new ball together with Masvaure after Kevin Kasuza had been ruled out due to concussion having taken a blow to his helmet fielding at short leg.

It was the only low point for Zimbabwe on an otherwise brilliant day of cricket for the hosts.

It was, however, Raza who illuminated Harare Sports Club as he ripped through the Sri Lanka batting line up.

Incredibly, Raza was not the luckiest man on the pitch with a number of batsmen put down off his bowling.

The part time spinners’ victims included Kusal Mendis (22), whose shot crashed onto Kasuza’s protective head gear before Mumba completed the catch.

He also took out Dimuth Kurunatne, Dinesh Chandimal (6) Dhananjan De Silva (42), Dickwella (1), Suranga Lakmal (5) and Lasith Embuldeniya (5) as he fell narrowly short of Paul Strang’s record of the best bowling figures in an innings by a Zimbabwean.

Strang took 8 for 109 against New Zealand in 2000.

Raza said they were pleased with their performance and will look to continue dominating the match as they go into day four.

“As a team, we should be very happy with where we are at the moment,” Raza said.

“We will look to dictate terms with the bat and hopefully set ourselves up for another good bowling display. We still have a lot of batting in the tank and the first hour and half will be crucial. We are looking at the guys who are in to lay the foundation in the first hour so that we can be more aggressive. I must say today we are pleased with what we did, this is one of my best Test cricket days in my career. ”

This morning, Zimbabwe will be looking to further stretch their lead as they set their sights on winning this match to level the series.

WARRIORS striker Admiral Muskwe has moved a step up in his football career after joining English League Two side Swindon Town from Leicester City on loan until the end of the season.

BY HENRY MHARA

The 21-year-old has been a regular for the English Premiership side’s Under-23 team this season where he has impressed, scoring 10 goals in all competitions.

Muskwe is replacing Eoin Doyle who was recalled from his loan spell in Wiltshire by parent club Bradford earlier this month.

“I am raring to go. I like the style of play here – it’s attacking and I think that will suit me. I’m just eager to get going and try and help the team,” Muskwe said on Tuesday upon joining his new club.

He has been in outstanding form in front of goal for Leicester City’s development squad this term, helping them reach the quarter-finals of the Leasing.com Trophy as well as securing a nomination for the Premier League 2 December Player of the Month.

Muskwe joined Leicester City’s Academy at the age of nine and has represented the club at Under-18 and Under-23 levels.
This season, he has scored 10 goals in 19 appearances for Leicester City’s development squad and is the top goal scorer for a side currently sitting second in the top division of the Under-23 football.

He will now take the next step in his progression by joining Swindon, who currently sit two points clear at the top of the table in the English fourth-tier league.

Swindon have been seeking attacking reinforcements after top goalscorer Doyle returned to Bradford earlier this month, having scored a staggering 23 goals in 30 matches.

He could make his debut for Swindon in the top-of-the-table match with Exeter City on Saturday.

The Warriors star has yet to play a first team game. This will be his first loan spell away from the Foxes. He was part of the Leicester first team squad in pre-season though, where he trained with the likes of Jamie Vardy.
Muskwe has appeared four times for Zimbabwe in the last three years.

He was named in Zimbabwe’s training squad for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals, but failed to make the cut in the final squad.

His move to a club playing League football could be good news for the Warriors fans who want to see many of their players playing competitive football ahead of Zimbabwe’s busy Afcon and World Cup qualifying campaigns which begin in March.

THE European Union (EU) has bemoaned the slow pace at which government is implementing recommendations made by several election observer teams and the Kgalema Motlanthe Commission meant to address the political crisis in the country brought about by the disputed 2018 elections.

BY MOSES MATENGA

In an interview with NewsDay after the launch of the Zimbabwe Economic Partnership Agreement Support Project in Harare yesterday, EU ambassador to Zimbabwe, Timo Olkkonen, said nothing was moving on the reforms front.

“We want to see faster pace in implementing reforms. It is now one and half years since the TSP (Transitional Stabilisation Programme) was published. That is the main policy document. It is more than a year since the Motlanthe Commission came up with its recommendations in its report,” he said.

“It is way more over than a year when election observation missions gave their recommendations. There are issues around the constitutional alignment such as section 210 about the independent complaints mechanism. So there are issues that we would want to be seeing concrete results delivered on.”

Several election observer missions called for dialogue in Zimbabwe and urged government to act on reforms that include respect for human rights and the Constitution, among others.

The Motlanthe Commission, set up after the August 1, 2018 post-election shootings in Harare, recommended dialogue among the country’s political actors to end polarisation.

Close to two years later, polarisation is still visible in the country with President Emmerson Mnangagwa and opposition leader Nelson Chamisa avoiding to meet to end the debilitating crisis that has crippled the country.
On the humanitarian situation and the need for dialogue to end the political crisis, Olkkonen said: “When one looks at the crisis, of course the EU is doing its best also in providing relief. We have come up with significant humanitarian aid. Our member States are also doing their share.

“If there would be a functioning viable agricultural sector, Zimbabwe would not have been in a position to import support. Likewise in the economic sector, what we are seeing today is a result of years and years of mismanagement and it requires a head-on tackling of issues such as corruption, but also structural issues, for example why the agricultural or mining sectors are not providing the public resources that they would require.”

The EU envoy reiterated the need for political stakeholders to come together and talk with a view to ending the challenges bedevilling the country.

“It is not for the EU to be prescriptive about how Zimbabwe must conduct dialogue, but the situation in the country would warrant a comprehensive dialogue about these issues and to go forward as a nation,” he said.

The High Court has reversed a directive by police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga to close Support Unit Independent College on January 2 this year without prior notice, leaving about 200 pupils stranded.

BY CHARLES LAITON

Matanga closed the college early this month to pave way for the regularisation of the learning institution.

However, High Court judge Justice Amie Tsanga ordered the school to continue operating as regularisation processes simultaneously take place.

“The suspension of the operation of ZRP Support Unit College be and is hereby uplifted forthwith. The school shall reopen for one calendar term being January to April 2020 which period shall serve as notice to all parents, pupils and school authorities to regularise the school’s shortcomings, failure which it shall be closed at the expiry of this period,” Justice Tsanga ruled, ordering Matanga and his co-defendants to pay costs of the suit.
The institution, which was registered with the Primary and Secondary Education ministry a decade ago, but was yet to be formally regularised, mainly served children of junior police officers.

“Whatever the reasons the first respondent (Matanga) had in mind to order the closure of the college, the decision to do so should have been communicated within a reasonable time to afford me (one of the parents) together with other parents enough time to run around and find alternative schools for our children. In the circumstances, it is inconceivable to believe that a notice of less than two weeks is reasonable in this case,” he said.

“Considering that this is a school with more than 200 school children, the first respondent should have considered the serious adverse consequences to be faced by us … to find another school within a period of less than two weeks.”

The parents had submitted that on the closing date or any other date soon thereafter, there was no parents meeting or notification received from any of the police bosses that the college was going to cease its operations at the beginning of January 2020 and would not be opening for the first term.

“In fact, I together with other parents of the students at the college had a legitimate expectation that the college was going to operate throughout the 2020 since the first respondent had already approved the regularisation of the operation of the college. That being the case, we spent the whole school holidays mobilising funds to pay for our children for the first term of 2020. We never made any effort to find alternative schools for our children since the college was operating very well to the satisfaction of most parents and the pupils,” the disgruntled parent said in their High Court application.