The High Court has thrown out Emmanuel Dumbu’s bid to unseat Matubede Mudavanhu as the official Chief Mugabe. The court ruled that the ongoing succession battle within the Mugabe clan had reached such a deadlock that only presidential intervention could untangle the mess.

Dumbu, who had dragged President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Local Government Minister Winston Chitando, and Mudavanhu into the legal fray, claimed his rival’s appointment was “irregular, illegitimate, and unconstitutional.” He insisted he was the rightful heir under the clan’s famously complex “collateral system of rotation,” where leadership supposedly spins like a royal merry-go-round among five families: Dumbu, Chipfunhu, Haruzivishe, Chikamhi (Muzondo), and Mudavanhu.

According to Dumbu, a meeting of these five houses at Chikarudzo Business Centre in October 2022 had crowned him the successor. But Justice Herbert Zisengwe, presiding at the Masvingo High Court, wasn’t buying it. He declared the traditional process had hit a brick wall, leaving the Minister no choice but to step in and appoint Mudavanhu substantively.

“There was a stalemate, and repeating the same process would be like trying to teach a cat to bark,” the judge quipped. He pointed out that Mudavanhu had been acting chief since 2009 and that his appointment didn’t violate any customs or traditions.

On the contentious 2022 meeting, Justice Zisengwe was crystal clear: “Mudavanhu’s appointment is not an affront to the community’s culture  , it’s more like a royal timeout that finally ended.”

The court also noted that Zimbabwean law wisely includes a “tie-breaker” mechanism for such royal gridlocks, a tool apparently as necessary as a referee in a family game of musical chairs.

Dumbu had argued that the rotation system meant his family was next in line, accusing the Mudavanhu house of clinging to power like a stubborn barnacle since Chief Mute Mudavanhu’s death. Despite his claims, the court dismissed his case with costs, officially crowning Mudavanhu as Chief Mugabe after nearly 14 years of acting in the role  proving that sometimes, in royal politics, patience (and presidential power) really is a virtue.

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