Youth group hails judicial independence

BINDURA-BASED youth group, Josiah Magama Tongogara Advocacy Group, has commended the country's judiciary for upholding the constitution and the rule of law.

This was after the MDC-Alliance alleged that the Constitutional Court ruling was pro-President Mnangagwa following the dismissal of its leader's poll petition.

The Youth Advocacy Group held a discussion to celebrate Zimbabwe's constitutional democracy, under theme "strengthening constitutional institutions and embracing judicial independence" recently and the group's founder and chairman, Mr Carson Kundiona, said judicial independence was sacrosanct in any open and democratic society such as Zimbabwe.

"The General Josiah Tongogara Youth Advocacy Group is holding these seminars to affirm our judiciary's probity, impartiality and independence. Judicial independence is sacrosanct in any open and democratic society such as Zimbabwe.

"We cannot accept a situation where the judiciary is flagrantly abused from simply carrying out their constitutional mandate," he said. "Such utterances are irresponsible especially coming from an officer of the court whose conduct should always be seen to advance the integrity of the court.

"More critical such statements have an effect of denting the public's respect and confidence in our judicial system and consequently lead to lawlessness and anarchy as people will resort to taking the law into their hands as opposed to resolving issues via the judiciary."

He said Mr Nelson Chamisa's petition was weak on points of law and was bound to be dismissed on its merits not on the identities of the applicant and the respondents, adding that the proceedings were televised and everyone witnessed that the applicant failed to provide sufficient evidence to establish a prima facie case.

He said it becomes intellectually dishonest for Mr Chamisa to suggest that the Concourt decision was a result of a pro-Zanu-PF bias.