ConCourt refuses to confirm High Court ruling ending Malaba job
By Nyashadzashe Ndoro | Nehanda Courts |
The Constitutional Court has thrown away a High Court ruling declaring invalid the five year extension of Chief Justice Luke Malaba’s term of office by President Emmerson Mnangagwa beyond 70 years of age.
Top lawyer, Professor Lovemore Madhuku who challenged the 15 May High Court ruling on behalf of Zanu PF activist, Marx Mupungu, confirmed the ConCourt led by Justice Rita Makarau refused to confirm the High Court ruling that ended Malaba’s term.
“What the Constitutional Court has done is to tell the whole country that the order given by the High Court was an order declaring invalid what President Mnangagwa has done in extending Chief Justice Luke Malaba’s term. Secondly the ConCourt refuses to confirm that ruling,” Madhuku said.
Basically this ConCourt ruling preempts appeal processes before the Supreme Court.
On 15 May this year, using a controversial Constitutional Amendment Number 2 Act, Mnangagwa extended Malaba’s term of office by an additional five years.
But three High Court judges, Justices Happias Zhou, Edith Mushore and Jester Charewa overturned Mnangagwa’s decision leading to the top judge filing an appeal at the Supreme Court.
A Bulawayo man, Mupungu, then applied to the ConCourt challenging the High Court ruling, arguing that Mnangagwa acted constitutionally.
The May High Court ruling was made after Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum executive director Musa Kika and the Young Lawyers Association of Zimbabwe challenged the extension of Malaba beyond 70 years. Nehanda Radio
