Magistrate arrested for 'hiding' 200 court records

POLICE have arrested a senior magistrate stationed at Plumtree magistrates' courts on allegations of hiding nearly 200 court records since 2009 in a move likely to unearth a massive scandal within the country's justice delivery system.The arrest of Stephen Mavuna, who has since been transferred to Kezi to facilitate investigations, could open a can of worms and leave the Judicial Service Commission with egg on its face.

He has implicated clerks of court (names given) whom he said have a habit of hiding records of proceedings. It could not be established why the records were hidden but indications are that there is a lot of corruption going on within the courts of law, with fears that records of proceedings were being destroyed or kept away from review following suspected clandestine judgments.

The allegations come after several records were not accounted for at the Plumtree Magistrates' Courts.  Some cases were supposed to go for review and scrutiny or appeal but were either not sent or not returned to the station.

Mavuna appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Trynos Wutahwashe yesterday facing charges of criminal abuse of office. In his defence outline, Mavuna, who is represented by Dumisani Dube of Cheda and Partners, said he was being wrongfully implicated when it was known that clerks were hiding files.

He said he reported the matter to his superior Mark Dzira who was resident magistrate then. Mavuna alleged that the former provincial magistrate in charge of Matabeleland South based in Gwanda, the late Douglas Zvenyika, also knew about the rot but nothing was done about the issue.

In terms of law, the resident magistrate should check records and files weekly while the provincial magistrate should check on a monthly basis, said Mavuna, adding that he could not have done anything about the issue after raising it with his superiors.

"The clerks confirmed during a disciplinary hearing that they were in the habit of hiding records. For years they have been doing this. A physical search by the State revealed that there were missing records while some were still in the offices. Some of them were my own records which led to my arrest," Mavuna said.

The magistrate submitted that the court should subpoena Dzira as a defence witness, adding that he could not be found "revolutionising" a system that had been there for years.

He said Dzira, who is now a regional magistrate in Bulawayo, would tell the court that the clerks were "extremely dishonest and defeated the purpose intended in the cases."

"I complained to the resident magistrate and provincial magistrate in the past years and for reasons best known to them they never took any action. They are the only ones with the power to make disciplinary proceedings and I could not be expected to do anything after complaining to the resident magistrate," said Mavuna.

He said the clerks were the ones responsible for filling columns in completed files and updating and entering relevant information after court proceedings.

A heap of records meant for review at the High Court and scrutiny at the regional court and others supposed to have gone for appeal were produced as exhibits in court.

A statement by the incumbent resident magistrate for Plumtree, Livard Philimon, showed that the rot was discovered in April last year.
Philimon said he worked with Mavuna between July 2011 and June 2012 and during routine checks he discovered that several records sent to the Regional and High Court had not come back while some sent to Mavuna had not been returned.

Philimon said he assigned a clerk to inquire with the relevant courts and found out that the records had been received and Mavuna allegedly endorsed false dates to give a false impression that he had sent them for respective assignments.

Prosecuting, Goodluck Katenaire said from the period 2009 and June 2012, Mavuna allegedly did not submit records of proceedings which he kept in his office while some disappeared.

It is alleged that false entries were made into the scrutiny, review and appeals registers to give an impression that the records had been dispatched.

This could have deprived several appellants and convicts of their rights to appeal as they could not have access to their records.
The court heard that a total of 191 records were not accounted for. About 162 were supposed to go for review, 16 for scrutiny and 13 for appeals but were allegedly channelled otherwise.

The trial continues on Friday.