Solo ‘Mandela’ Madzore: Law of the Jungle
By Juma Ulete
Chief Justice Chidyausiku had the audacity to reprimand a lawyer representing the MDC 31 claiming that he was undermining the court or it amounted to contempt of court as commonly said in legal corridors.
He went on to say Injustice Bhunu was a well decorated judge who had vast experience and had sat on the bench for more than 30 good years. I don’t doubt the 30yrs, neither do I seek to undermine the respected courts, mine is an attempt to bring to light how experience cannot be the best teacher here.
It is either experience is a fallacy in the legal fraternity or the more tempting fact that a third hand has so blinded our courts, magistrates, prosecutors, judges and the chief justice.
As citizens of Zimbabwe I believe judges are entitled to what other Zimbabweans get but a problem arises when they are given ill extended benefits such as farms in the chaotic land reform exercise, some diamond mines or when they become beneficiaries of the companies grab going on in our country.
If Bhunu’s 30 years couldn’t tell him that Solomon Madzore was innocent for over a year, then it would be a shame even to have this guy as a magistrate for a single day. He promoted the Zanu PF agenda from day one.
Let’s not be fooled this has never been a trial, the facts have been so clear not even Hitler would have arrested President Solo for this murder. He was just too far from wherever it happened unless if maybe the law allowed the use of goblins to be used as weapons of murder, even then some senior sangomas would have to come first to ascertain that its him who sent the African magic.
They have insisted that they have witnesses who never existed; common sense would say the witnesses must have been given an opportunity to point at the suspects and positively identify them.
Instead we heard of funny stories coming out. The judge displayed great negligence and a worrying level of not understanding the law or deliberate neglect of the law he was supposed to uphold.
He showed that even as naïve as he was he failed to find any legal reason to keep President Solo and the others behind bars, from a collection of issues and reasons he provided for over a year you can clearly see a man throwing away his responsibility to adjudicate on presentations from both side but an attempt to side with Zanu PF /police/prosecution to try and find any technicality to implement a political decision.
What’s new that injustice Bhunu saw that he failed to see in the past 14months? The simple answer is nothing except maybe the fact that he received another political instruction to do so.
This is why injustice Bhunu and crew wanted President Solo behind bars; they thought this would reduce the momentum President Solo had built as a vibrant youth leader, the realisation that under President Solo’s leadership Zanu-PF hooligans masquerading as police officers or otherwise would never beat up MDC youths so wantonly.
Secondly they thought that this would expose the MDC as a party that doesn’t care about those comrades in trouble. To their great shock President Solo’s incarceration united the party, he continued to be the commander even from behind bars.
With the recent visits by Amai Elizabeth Tsvangirai to the courts and remand prison they discovered how easily they had made President Solo a Mandela of our life time. That’s the real reason why Bhunu released him.
Let’s not only be overjoyed by the semi-freedom of our leader, our Mandela, lets clearly and loudly request with urgency the release of the remaining comrades and go a step further and put in place mechanisms to stop this Zanu PF teenage excitement of imprisoning someone for more than a year and release them whenever they want.
Its inhuman, it’s unacceptable it’s a primitive strategy that aims at weakening the soul. It must be ruthlessly stopped.
Juma Ulete writes from the MDC-T SA Province Chairman’s Office
