Christopher Dube-Banda was presiding over the trial of Munyaradze
Mawadze when he was asked to recuse himself. He refused insisting that he will be
impartial. Mawadze then appealed to the Supreme Court.
The court said that a retired or foreign judge should be
considered for fairness.
“Undoubtedly the learned judge, owing to his conduct and
utterances, objectively displayed unmistakable characteristics of apparent bias
as already stated elsewhere in this judgment.
“An impartial and neutral judge does not foist a legal
practitioner on a litigant. He or she does not blame a litigant for requesting
his or her recusal. Neither does he give a litigant inadequate notice for trial
nor endeavour to proceed with a matter in the face of an unresolved pertinent
notice to appeal.”
“We accordingly hold that there is merit in the appellant’s
appeal.”
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