Zim top jurist retires

Justice Wilson Sandura, an eminent jurist on the Supreme Court bench, has retired, with colleagues saying the judiciary has been robbed of one of the finest legal brains in the country.

The high-profile judge left the bench at the end of July, before the Supreme Court went on its month-long break in August.

Justice Sandura, the most senior judge in the country after serving as a judge for nearly 30 years, would be remembered as a forthright and fearless judge who saved his country with a constant mind, both in good and turbulent times. Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku's office confirmed Sandura's retirement at the age of 70.

The top judge had served on the Supreme Court since 1998. He was a High Court judge between 1983 and 1997, and was judge president from 1984.

Some of the retired judge's notable judgments include the case of Movement for Democratic Change treasurer, Roy Bennett, whose application for early release was dismissed by Chief Justice Chidyausiku following the politician's sentencing to an effective year in prison by Parliament after flooring Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa. Justice Chidyausiku said Bennett's oneyear sentence, though "severe, is not grossly disproportionate to the offence" but the Sandura said: "I respectfully disagree with it. "

Sandura also passed a dissenting judgment in the case of former Judge Benjamin Paradza, stating that Mugabe had erred in using his powers to select members of a tribunal that probed the judge.

In 2002, the judge also differed with Justice Chidyausiku's judgment on a media case on the issue of compulsory accreditation of journalists under the Access to information and Protection of Privacy Act.

He said compelling journalists to register was clearly ultra vires the Constitution as it violated Section 20 of the Constitution.

In 2009, the law society awarded Sandura the Walter Kamba Rule of Law Award, named in honour of the late Professor Walter Joseph Kamba, a law professor and scholar credited for being the driving force behind the expansion and transformation of the University of Rhodesia into the University of Zimbabwe.

In 1989, Justice Sandura became a household name in Zimbabwe after presiding over the Sandura Commission that claimed the political careers of several ministers following a vehicle scandal, commonly referred to as the Willogate scandal.

For more than seven weeks, the Sandura Commission called 72 witnesses, including six Cabinet ministers, two deputy ministers, three Members of Parliament, two senior army officers and 40 directors and managers of private companies.

During the hearings, some Cabinet ministers threatened commissioners, but Justice Sandura stood his ground and threatened two of them with arrest.

The Los Angeles Times of April 20, 2009, in its coverage of the commission's work, portrayed Justice Sandura as a legal super-hero.