SUSPENDED High Court judge Justice Erica Ndewere has accused Chief Justice Luke Malaba of lying to President Emmerson Mnangagwa that she had 34 outstanding matters when she only had three.
Through her lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, Justice Ndewere told
Justice Sunsley Zisengwe that a
memorandum dated October 23, 2020 from the Registrar of High Court to Chief Justice Malaba confirms
that she did not have 28 outstanding judgments or reviews for 2020 as alleged.
She submitted that the Judicial Service Commission (JSC)
failed to carry out an independent investigation into her alleged misconduct,
but rather “rubber stamped” the unlawful investigation done by Chief Justice
Malaba without verifying the allegations.
Justice Ndewere is challenging the legality of a tribunal
set up by Mnangagwa in November last year to determine her fitness to hold the
office of High Court judge.
She said she only had three pending matters, contrary to
allegations that she had 28 outstanding reviews and six outstanding reserved
judgments as reported to Mnangagwa.
“Kindly note Judge President (George Chiweshe) that we have
gone through our latest statistics for Honourable Ndewere,” the High Court
Registrar’s note read. “From the above information, the honourable judge has
three matters that are dating back to 2018.
“We believe our information is accurate and to this end we
attach the statistics for the honourable judge for the week ending October 15,
2020 which captures the mentioned matters, and was signed off by the judge
(Ndewere).”
Justice Ndewere argued that Chief Justice Malaba conducted
his own probe when he was not authorised to do so at law.
Justice Ndewere is accusing Chief Justice Malaba of
victimising her after she ignored his “unlawful” directive to deny bail to
former Labour minister Priscah Mupfumira on charges of abusing National Social
Security Authority funds and MDC Alliance deputy chairperson Job Sikhala on
inciting public violence charges.
Justice Ndewere said even though she had no outstanding
judgments or reviews, she was singled out for victimisation when 17 other
judges with long outstanding judgments were not charged.
She also argues that the Chief Justice did not appoint a
disciplinary committee of three judges as required by law but acted as both
complainant and jury in the matter. Justice Zisengwe reserved his judgment on
the matter. Newsday
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