Presidential spokesperson George Charamba claimed on
Twitter yesterday that government would unleash security agencies to probe the
law firms in question and the lawyers’ body.
This came a few weeks after Justice minister Ziyambi
Ziyambi accused some of the country’s judges of taking orders from hostile
foreign nations to pass judgments against government.
Charamba threatened to unleash the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption
Commission (Zacc) on LSZ financials and “white law firms” that are against
government.
“Why does this racially fastidious auditor of professional
conduct of lawyers so wilfully blind to this yelling anomaly which has persisted
for decades? Shouldn’t Zacc move in to ask basic questions to both the society
and the firm in question? Or higher bodies, now that State security is
involved?” he tweeted
“Here we go: There’s a prominent white law firm whose books
have gone unchecked for donkey years, including by the falsely punctilious Law
Society of Zimbabwe which busily harasses indigenous law firms ironically in
the name of protecting them.”
Charamba went on to allege that the white law firms were a
conduit for foreign monies which funded the activities of the opposition in
Zimbabwe.
“We have mechanisms for detecting such subterfuges. What I
can’t suffer or countenance is a statutory body purporting to represent
officers of the court turning the same members who make it up — or should —
into vicarious subversives,” he said.
Asked by NewsDay to clarify his tweets, Charamba curtly
said: “Wait my friend. I have a serious assignment to do.”
LSZ spokesperson Richard Chidza declined to comment on
Charamba’s latest allegations saying the statement issued on Saturday should
suffice.
“A decision has been made that the statement issued on
Saturday will suffice. We aren’t going to be involved in a public fight with
anyone,” Chidza said.
In its statement last Saturday, the LSZ said it was being
vilified for challenging Constitutional Amendments (No 1) and (No 2) Acts.
“It is clear from the provisions of the law that the Law
Society has not veered from its objects amid inferences to the contrary by some
characters that are aimed at soiling the image of the profession, the society
and its membership. The decision to challenge the two amendments is within the
remit of the Law Society’s objects of existence as provided for in section 53
of the Legal Practitioners Act,” the statement read.
The two constitutional amendments were challenged by
different lawyers as they were seen to be facilitating Mnangagwa’s
consolidation of power. Newsday
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