Corruption @ Murambinda Magistrate

Your esteemed paper carried an article that humbled me a lot. The article was about Honourable Magistrate Henry Sande of Murambinda Magistrate's Courts. The article on its own, I feel, has also made the late Tinashe Ranga, former Hon Magistrate Sande's workmate and clerk of court, both smile and turn in his grave.

Hon Magistrate Sande, from the look of things, is dangerously corrupt, corrupt to the extent that people have lost the trust that they had on members of the Judiciary. Had it not been that the Judiciary's doors are not too open to the public, people would have been 'flocking into the responsible authorities with complaints about unbecoming behaviours of their officers, which have fast become too condescending for them to bear, and in this particular thrust, Honourable Magistrate Sande as rightly pointed out in the article that I am making reference to. Lack of such open complaints desks in the judiciary has worked against having made corruption a thing of the past by now. As a resident of Murambinda, I have seen a lot about Magistrate Sande's corrupt deals, but do not even know how and where to present them.

Cases are no longer being settled on evidentiary merit,one has to buy a Magistrates favour, nothing else. A lot of cases were supposed to be handled at Murambinda, and a lot of things happened along the way. Magistrate Sande would transfer most of the cases to Rusape, that is if, and only if he would have messed up on them. In making such corrupt executions, he would work in cahoots with a certain lady driver he works with, who also happens to be the one who does records for appeals, popularly known as Chihera, though I am not so sure if its her correct name. Two duet 'emulsified' one Chabata's case and were given a beast as a reward, with Chihera working as a medium through which those beast were handed for corrupt services, with Chihera further using one Matibura of Buhera Council, who would lubricate all deals through ensuring swift clearances and changing ownership. I myself only got to know about this well before the late Ranga died, he had told us that Sande is a problem, and that they were ever at loggerheads for he queried his 'boss' over his deals from time to time.

I do wonder why the Judiciary Services Commission (JSC) does not take even the simplest to stern measures against their officers when ever pertinent issues like these are raised. The JSC has stood up by Sande to defend him to the surprise of many. Even the Honourable Provincial Magistrate knows all Sande's shoddy and dirty deals but prefers zipping her mouth and lending a deaf ear to any such complaints to taking action. She would accuse the complainants to trying to frame a case against their accomplice, Sande.

Most Murambinda residents prayerfully wonder why these Judicial officers have stayed at this station for too long, at least we need new faces and brains for Sande and Chihera are doing more harm than any good. As I write, Magistrate Sande is busy collecting money from people, telling them that he is relocating to Chivhu, near his farmland, but will be coming to Murambinda from time to time, since he owns multiple residential stands in the growth point. He boasts that he will lay his influence on the current magistrate to protect his long time friends, who at the same time happen to be the most notorious criminals, so that they do not resultantly face jail. His being close to his former workplace would be dangerous for the two places, Murambinda and Chivhu, thus need for a wholesome transfer to a place a bit further like Binga or Guruve. All the current staff of his time should go, that's how best the place can be cleansed.

l have it on good authority that Sande lied to the media about Ranga's death when he knew every correct detail, it was obvious from the word go that he is 97%responsible for the death. When Ranga was hospitalised, Sande was phoned and took long to respond. When he latter went to the hospital, Ranga had been given a wrong prescription. All this pained a lot of people who were 'in the know' about the goings on, including myself. He attended Ranga's funeral, misinforming the deceased's relatives about the causes of Ranga's death. It all shows how heartless he is.

Thanks very much for the issues that you have touched on in your article, but there is need to closely examine every case that was transferred to to Rusape to detail, including the recent one involving Ratidzo Mugomba, for I feel it will provide a lot of 'leads' into a lot other cases of corruption.

There is also another case of corruption pitting Kusotera and Muchiriri which needs attention. Kusotera is one of the victims who emerged the biggest losers in a simple and obvious case which he was supposed to win, but due to Sande's corruption and heavy handedness on the poor, he lost. Hon Sande dismissed Muchiriri's application for a Peace Order and Interdict at first which was ok, the magistrate then referred the matter for trial.Is this normal under normal circumstances???l guess no!How come someone applying for a Peace Order, a mere Peace Order, has his application dismissed and ordered to attend a trial court even if there were material disputes of facts? A person order can be granted only to make sure peace prevails and the least the magistrate could do is issue an order in reciprocally if they happen to arise material disputes of facts. Common sense tells me that this is only normal under both abnormal and subnormal circumstances like the one under Sande, he was paid by the applicant to frustrate the respondent, and to drive his desire home, the defendant went on to lose the case, forced by circumstance to appeal against the judgement, and Hon Sande grants the applicant (Muchiriri) who had very minimum chances of success from the word go, an execution order. Later on Muchiriri was granted a warrant of ejectment which made Kusotera's garden be destroyed. It eludes my own wisdom how a warrant of ejectment ends up being issued on a mere Interdict??? Thus the law here was unfairly used to Kusotera's disadvantage, crystal clear act of corruption.

When Hon Sande issued a warranty of ejectment to Muchiriri, we heard the record of the case has already been transferred to Rusape. Under normal circumstances if the warranty was supposed to be issued it was supposed to be issued by a Rusape Magistrate since they were the custodian of the record. It only shows how eager the honourable magistrate was to please Muchiriri. A trained and professional magistrate can not allow that costly blunder. He was no longer supposed to entertain the case since records were transferred to Rusape but because he is God father in Murambinda he did it.  When approached by Kusotera over way forward we were told he insulted him and tell him to approach the courts if he think the magistrate's decision would be reversed.

Resultantly, Sande was made to summon the parties to the case and lay apology on them and surprisingly, he ended up threatening Kusotera. He never helped Kusotera replace his fence which had been unlawfully destroyed by the Sheriff.

This is just a tip of the iceberg, on pointing out how Sande has become a log in the spokes of the wheels of justice, not only in Murambinda, but Zimbabwe as a whole. In the article, against, we see that there is another case between Chipo and Mutikani, whose records must also be thoroughly examined, and that's only after which you will be able to know that the Civil Procedure is now marred with shortcuts and irregularities. The Honourable Provincial Magistrate as well, who seems to be a crucial accessory in Sande's deals, must be transferred, without any further delay, together with Sande and Chihera, with a heavy punishment pending befitting action.

Worried

Gombe Archieford (Buhera)