Mnangagwa urges lawyers to preach gospel of peace

PRESIDENT Mnangagwa yesterday urged the legal fraternity to join the national crusade of preaching the gospel of peace and unity as the nation moves towards the August 23 harmonised elections.

He made the remarks at the Silver Jubilee of one of the country's leading law firms, DMH (Dube, Manikai and Hwacha) Law Chambers and the official opening of DMH House in Harare.

President Mnangagwa said elections were fast approaching and the profession knew of the importance of peace, tranquillity and harmony during the election period.

"Our country's harmonised general elections to be held on August 23 are fast approaching," he said. "Legal practitioners are invited to be part of the national crusade preaching and practising peace. You also have a duty to entrench unity and a culture of non-violence, before, during and after the elections. The people of Zimbabwe expect no less from you."

President Mnangagwa said it was the duty of all Zimbabweans to condemn the economic sabotage and hybrid asymmetrical attack on the country's independence and national interests.

The Government, he said, would continue to put in place measures to promote sustainable growth of the economy, increased investments, production and productivity towards the realisation of development that leaves no one and no place behind.

President Mnangagwa urged the nation not to tire in fostering a unity of purpose across all the sectors of the economy adding that the legal profession, of which he was a member by training, should join the Government in nation building efforts.

Founded in 1998, DMH Law Chambers has established itself as a fixture on the Zimbabwean legal landscape.

The law firm is reputed as a top tier, respected, experienced and leading commercial law firm in the country and for the year 2020, it was one of only four Band 1 ranked business law firms in Zimbabwe and had one of only four Band 1 ranked business lawyers in Zimbabwe.

The firm's partners Advocate Canaan Dube, Edwin Manikai and Selby Hwacha are highly regarded in the legal fraternity.

The firm boasts 15 lawyers in total and 40 percent of the lawyers in the firm's partnership are women.

President Mnangagwa applauded the law firm for practising a principle-based and ethics–driven leadership in line with an innovative approach to decision making and problem solving.

Over the years, the partners harnessed their various competencies and experiences to continuously build a solid and sustainable brand for the firm to become a model institution.

To this end, President Mnangagwa challenged the legal practitioners and other professionals in general to forge partnerships and synergies for the common good of society and the country at large.

He also challenged the firm to consolidate and safeguard the achievements made so far, including the recognition accorded by Chambers and Partners, which is the global rating agency for lawyers.

"Your strong presence in the market with regards to the provision of a wide range of corporate and commercial services to clients must also be emulated by others in the legal fraternity," said President Mnangagwa.

"This is more important as the establishment of a sound legal culture, its practice as well as broad impact remains critical for our nation's sustainable socio-economic development, modernisation and industrialisation."

President Mnangagwa also took the opportunity to remind the legal fraternity to reflect and position themselves in the context of the realisation of targets set out in the country's National Development Strategy and Vision 2030.

He said under the Second Republic, justice delivery, a patriotic, independent and corrupt-free legal fraternity was core to the Government's quest of entrenching constitutionalism, good governance, democracy and the rule of law.

"To this end, I call upon legal practitioners to ensure that services offered are available and accessible towards lifting more of our people to a higher quality of life and out of poverty, into prosperity. Nyika inovakwa ne vene vayo, ilizwe lakhiwa ngabanikazi balo."

President Mnangagwa said lawyers should also rise above their profession and join the national effort to expose and fight corruption.

"You must be at the forefront of demonstrating the core tenets of ethic-driven leadership, mindsets and actions along with accountability and integrity," he said.

"These values keep the profession cherished as noble, independent and honourable."

The President urged legal professionals to shun the temptation to cut corners for quick money and exhorted them to play a critical role in society by taking up more pro-bono work (free work on behalf of the public good), to assist vulnerable members of society to access justice.

Speaking at the same occasion, Adv Dube said when the three partners started the law firm, they agreed that they needed to be different from the conventional law firms and one differentiating factor was quality.

"Whatever we did, be it infrastructure or furniture, the quality of our service was central and crucial," he said.

Adv Dube said the imposing building housing the law firm rides on the principle of quality.

"Whatever we do we are quality driven, customer focused and we also measure our success against our promise and that again is driven by quality."