BY KUSEKWA KUSEKWA
The High Court at Moshi has allowed five Mangio villagers in Mwanga District to sue the Registered Trustees of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) on behalf of fellow 140 villagers allegedly for secretly selling the Mangio Secondary School to one, Alhaji Yusuph Mfinanga, without their consent.
Granting the application, Judge Lilian Mongella ruled that the applicants met the requirements for the application to be granted, including establishing common interest and that the persons they intended to represent in the intended suit do exist and have duly mandated them to institute a legal suit on their behalf. They claimed the school was village property.
“The applicants shall file the intended Representative Suit on behalf of the 140 villagers of Mangio Village within 30 days from the date of this ruling. Considering the circumstances of this application, each party shall bear their own costs,” she said in a ruling delivered recently.
The judge further pointed out that the argument advanced by the counsel for the respondents that the school in question did not belong to the applicants, was a matter to be determined by the court upon the intended representative suit being heard.
“This is because the applicants intend to sue the respondents on the ownership and disposal of the school, thus, deciding on who is the owner of the school at this stage will be premature or rather pre-empting the intended suit,” she said.
During the hearing of the application, the counsel for the applicants had claimed that his clients contributed to the establishment, construction and running of the school since 1967 and to have run it in collaboration with CCM before it was secretly sold.
