Lloyd Mbiba
IN a development that will likely expose Zimbabwe as a banana republic judges have courageously launched a stinging attack on controversial chief justice Luke Malaba while decrying state capture of the judiciary.
In an unprecedented and unexpected letter dated 26 October and addressed to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the judges, who declined to be named for fear of victimisation and through their association said they wrote the letter with fear.
The letter is referenced ‘untenable working conditions within the judiciary’.
“We address you with fear and trepidation given the current fear which exists within the judiciary,” reads the letter.
The judge confirmed that state capture of the judiciary is real.
Said the judges: “What is repeated in the public domain and in social media about the capture of the judiciary is no longer fiction or perception, it is in fact reality. It is an open secret that right across the judicial structures, the chief justice now rules without fetter.
“Where magistrates used to be subject to administrative supervision by their superiors, it is now an open secret that the chief justice now routinely interferes with magistrates and their decisions through the chief magistrate’s office.”
There have been complaints that Mnangagwa’s administration has compromised the judiciary via Malaba, Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi and the ministry’s permanent secretary Virginia Mabhiza.
“The promotion without interviews of senior personnel with the Judicial Service commission (JSC) means that complaints fall on deaf ears as the senior unqualified personnel are there to protect their jobs and all the hefty perks that go with their jobs,” lamented the daring judges.
“As judges we no longer trust our support staff from we now have to hide our draft judgments for fear of being directed to change these.”
A few months back Malaba was forced to drop his demands to see judgments before they are passed.
“In the criminal justice system, prosecutors have become the new judicial officers as they wield enormous power and regularly misrepresent the conduct of magistrates and judges in open court as and when they report to the illegal structures that receive reports on court cases,” the judges said.
“Judges continue to be given worthless RTGS fuel coupons and their drivers have to burn more fuel searching for the few garages which still redeem RTGS fuel coupons.
“Despite Covid19 threat judges continue to share wigs, as for unclear reasons, not enough of these have been purchased.”
The judges also that the JSC is compromised.
“There is the judicial service commission itself which is regarded as the chief justice’s personal playground and fiefdom. It is an open secret that most of the decisions paraded as JSC decisions are in fact the chief justice’s personal decisions which he instructs the secretary of the JSC to communicate as commissioners’ decisions,” said the judges.
“Then there is the general lack of judicial decorum by the chief justice who address the judges as they are errant school boys and girls.
“There is also what the chief justice calls ‘judgment by consensus, a euphemism for discouraging dissenting judgments.”
The judges called for an investigation and an independent tribunal over the issues.
Mnangagwa has been busy setting up tribunals to deal with judges who are suspected of undermining his administration.
Also, lawyers suspected to be sympathetic to the opposition have been caged.
