Chamisa's lawyer sue Ziyambi over 'captured' judge remark - this is frivolous and dangerous

"Top lawyer, Thabani Mpofu, said Ziyambi faces contempt of court charges and the lawyers have drafted a complaint to the Registrar of High Court, Judge President George Chiweshe, and all cited judges following Ziyambi's weekend outburst," reported Bulawayo24.

"After Saturday's High Court ruling, the Justice Minister claimed the country's judiciary was "captured" by unnamed hostile foreign powers and the government would not accept that."

"Owing to the gravity of the matter we wish to advise that we have firm instructions from our consultant to take the necessary action, including the institution of proceedings for contempt of Court should the law not be faithfully and scrupulously adhered to," said Mpofu.

The lawyers' consultant is Musa Kika, the director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum.

"Whilst an appeal can, all things being equal, be lodged against a declaratur, the position in law is that an appeal does not suspend the operation of the declaratur," said Mpofu.

I am persuaded to think we have too many lawyers in Zimbabwe and, worst of all, many of them are mediocre.

One of the favourite career paths of our lawyers is politics and so many of the leaders in both Zanu PF and MDC are lawyers. Each of the two parties have had their fair share of legal blunders. Many people questioned the rational of Nelson Chamisa's claim that he won the July 2018 presidential race with 2.6 million votes and yet failed to produce the V11 forms, Polling station vote count summary sheet. Advocate Thabani Mpofu was Chamisa's lawyer in this Constitutional Court challenge.  

The Court challenge on the Constitution Amendment Bill No 2 has already shown that both the President and Minister of Justice have village idiots for legal advisors!

The Zanu PF regime has a narcissistic obsession with itself especially as regards its competence, the regime wants to portray an image it is infallible. To admit doing wrong would soil the infallible image and so must be resisted at all cost. Zanu PF has spent billions of dollars sprucing up its imagine many PR companies in USA and UK love the regime for it.

Mugabe was so fastidious about trivial matters he would ironed his socks and yet did nothing to arrest even one swindler he admitted "swindled the nation of US$15 billion in diamond revenue"! He was the swindler in chief and that is the point exactly! Still, all Zanu PF cronies are schooled claiming infallibility to hide their incompetence.  

And so we should not be surprised that Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi did not admit his office had mishandled the Amendment Bill and instead accused the three High Court judges, in this matter, of being "captured".

However, one has to question the wisdom of charging Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi of contempt of court for accusing the judges of being captured especially when the judiciary is indeed captured by the regime itself.

Many people have said Zimbabwe's judiciary is captured by Zanu PF because of such foolish judgements as Justice George Chiweshe's ruling that the November 2017 coup was "legal, justified and constitutional"!

When Didymus Mutasa, Joice Mujuru and many other Zanu PF bigwigs were booted out of the party in 2014, Didymus Mutasa threatened to sue Mugabe. "In whose Court!" the dictator replied dismissively!

If the Court was to censure Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi for saying the judges were captures; are we not throwing the door open to censure to all criticism of the Court for fear of contempt of court charges. Poor Didymus Mutasa would have faced the double jeopardy; punished by being denied the right to sue Mugabe and punished again for daring to repeat Mugabe's own boastful words as his reason for dropping the case.
Zimbabwe is facing a serious economic meltdown that has resulted in mass unemployment, the collapse of basic services such as education and health care and 49% our people now live in abject poverty, according to the WB's latest report. The root cause of the economic turmoil is the country's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.

The country had the golden opportunity to implement the democratic reforms and to draft a democratic constitution during the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The MDC leaders failed to implement even one reform and sold the nation a febrile constitution which has failed to deliver the democratic freedoms and rights including the right to free and fair elections. The great irony is MDC has so many lawyers and legal advisors.
The nation would rather see all these MDC leaders, some lawyers in their own right, and their legal advisor focus their attention of delivering free, fair and credible elections, sue ZEC for failing to produce a verified voters' roll, sue the Police for failing to arrest Zanu PF thugs forcing rural teachers to attend Zanu PF rallies, etc. Do something useful and relevant for a change!

Suing Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi for saying judges are captured is frivolous, to say the least, especially in the face of the very serious economic, social and political challenges the nation is facing!