Magistrate accused of making staff clean her 'too-posh-to-flush' mess in the toilet

A magistrate has been suspended over a litany of charges, including claims she made staff clean her mess in the toilet.

Oratile Nare, a former assistant to a High Court judge, was appointed a magistrate last year after escaping with a warning in another matter in which she was accused of sending a judge's nudes to a WhatsApp group.

Nare has now been suspended pending investigations into alleged professional misconduct as a magistrate in Nkayi.

Judicial Service Commission secretary Walter Chikwana said: "The magistrate has been suspended to allow investigations into several complaints we have received over her conduct. There is an investigation in progress and we will advise of its findings at the appropriate time."

ZimLive understands Nare threatened to get prosecutors sacked and verbally abused suspects.

A source said: "The complaints are many and varied. She allegedly made staff flush her mess in a toilet reserved for the magistrate; she allegedly ordered suspects not to look at her and deliberately left her handbag at work before ordering staff to bring it to her.

"Relations with prosecutors were particularly frayed. She would tell them that she's powerful because she caused a judge to be suspended."

Justice Thompson Mabhikwa is currently being probed by a tribunal for "gross misconduct" after images said to be of his penis, and intimate chats with a woman, were sent to various WhatsApp groups from his phone.

Mabhikwa has accused Nare of sending the images to spite him, allegedly after she discovered that he was seeing other women.

Nare, who was working as an assistant to Justice Maxwell Takuva of the Bulawayo High Court, escaped with just a warning over the incident, and was later appointed a magistrate.

"She's aggressive and rude," a legal source said.