News / National
Tomana fights for reinstatement
27 Sep 2017 at 16:00hrs | Views
AN ex-prosecutor who was dismissed by former Prosecutor-General (PG) Johannes Tomana in November 2011 for being part of the key architects of an industrial action that crippled the justice delivery system back then, is still fighting for his reinstatement, six years on.
Petrobs Dube was fired along with other prosecutors - Leopold Mudisi, Dereck Charamba, Mehluli Tshuma and Musekiwa Mbanje - for leading a strike over better working conditions.
Dube has obtained various court orders in favour of his reinstatement and yet none of them have ended his miseries.
In 2012, Tomana was ordered by the High Court to reinstate the dismissed prosecutors to their posts without loss of their rights and benefits under case number HH121-12.
Tomana appealed against the ruling under the Civil Appeal to the Supreme Court but he lost, which meant that the earlier ruling stood.
Dube later appealed to the Labour Court against his dismissal by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and he won the case but was never reinstated.
As if that was not enough, in September last year Dube approached the High Court for an order declaring him a public prosecutor in terms of the newly-enacted National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act.
A default judgment was passed by justice Francis Bere.
"It be and is hereby declared that the applicant is a transferred member of the NPA as defined in terms of Section 32 (1) of the NPA Act chapter 7:20 and is in terms of Section 32 (4) entitled to all the rights and privileges due to such employees of the authority," ruled Bere.
In reaction, the NPA quickly filed an application for rescission of judgment at the High Court here arguing that Dube was long dismissed.
But Dube represented by his lawyers Calderwood Bryce-Hendrie and Partners is not giving up the fight.
He has since filed an opposition arguing that he was not disqualified since the Labour Court had upheld his appeal against dismissal.
He has taken both the CSC and NPA to task for contempt of court arguing they were not entitled at law to disregard the initial court ruling in 2009 which ordered their reinstatement.
"The applicant has ignored this court order and proceeded as if the order is not operational. It has not bothered to seek the suspension of the order pending the determination of judgement. The applicant is guilty of contempt of court," Dube 's lawyers noted in the court papers.
"It is respectfully submitted that this honourable court should refuse the applicant audience until it has complied with the order granted under case number HC 2009/16."
Interestingly, the dismissal of the former PG on allegations of incompetence and misconduct arose from findings by the ConCourt that he had disobeyed court orders in violation of the Constitution.
The dismissed ex-prosecutors are executive members of the Zimbabwe Law Officers Association (ZILOA), which fomented a successful industrial action in 2011.
This led to their dismissal.
After Tomana 's dismissal as PG, the NPA is now headed by Ray Goba.
Petrobs Dube was fired along with other prosecutors - Leopold Mudisi, Dereck Charamba, Mehluli Tshuma and Musekiwa Mbanje - for leading a strike over better working conditions.
Dube has obtained various court orders in favour of his reinstatement and yet none of them have ended his miseries.
In 2012, Tomana was ordered by the High Court to reinstate the dismissed prosecutors to their posts without loss of their rights and benefits under case number HH121-12.
Tomana appealed against the ruling under the Civil Appeal to the Supreme Court but he lost, which meant that the earlier ruling stood.
Dube later appealed to the Labour Court against his dismissal by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and he won the case but was never reinstated.
As if that was not enough, in September last year Dube approached the High Court for an order declaring him a public prosecutor in terms of the newly-enacted National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act.
A default judgment was passed by justice Francis Bere.
"It be and is hereby declared that the applicant is a transferred member of the NPA as defined in terms of Section 32 (1) of the NPA Act chapter 7:20 and is in terms of Section 32 (4) entitled to all the rights and privileges due to such employees of the authority," ruled Bere.
In reaction, the NPA quickly filed an application for rescission of judgment at the High Court here arguing that Dube was long dismissed.
But Dube represented by his lawyers Calderwood Bryce-Hendrie and Partners is not giving up the fight.
He has since filed an opposition arguing that he was not disqualified since the Labour Court had upheld his appeal against dismissal.
He has taken both the CSC and NPA to task for contempt of court arguing they were not entitled at law to disregard the initial court ruling in 2009 which ordered their reinstatement.
"The applicant has ignored this court order and proceeded as if the order is not operational. It has not bothered to seek the suspension of the order pending the determination of judgement. The applicant is guilty of contempt of court," Dube 's lawyers noted in the court papers.
"It is respectfully submitted that this honourable court should refuse the applicant audience until it has complied with the order granted under case number HC 2009/16."
Interestingly, the dismissal of the former PG on allegations of incompetence and misconduct arose from findings by the ConCourt that he had disobeyed court orders in violation of the Constitution.
The dismissed ex-prosecutors are executive members of the Zimbabwe Law Officers Association (ZILOA), which fomented a successful industrial action in 2011.
This led to their dismissal.
After Tomana 's dismissal as PG, the NPA is now headed by Ray Goba.
Source - dailynews
