Three things happened in Zimbabwean courts in the last two weeks that got my attention.

One displays the attention to which the courts are attending to the word of the law and another displays the slipshod manner in which the law is applied in the country.

The third event displays the disdain with which the ruling party holds members of the judiciary.

Two different events that display the idiocy of the law and its application in Zimbabwe…

Firstly, ZANU PF representative Nhara was to be taken to trial for attempting to bribe a police officer and a customs official when a person in his entourage was found with illegal diamonds and trying to leave the country.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) he didn’t make trial and died before the trial even began.

The case was brought before the court and the charges were officially withdrawn. Probably something to do with the benefits that the man’s family would receive if the charges were left in place and hence, a question mark over his reputation.

I have got no query with this, except that all that really needed to happen was the Death Certificate shown to the Magistrate and that could be done in chambers.

But then this week a journalist for The Zimbabwean, a newspaper published from here in the UK, was being taken to court for publishing what the ruling party, the police and anyone else that would join them, called ‘falsehoods’.

But the wheels came off when it came out that the law they were trying to apply to the case had been repealed in 2003!

The continual constitutional changes, tweaking and fiddling with the Constitution by Robert Mugabe and his band of trusty followers is the main cause for this sort of thing.

I am glad it happened as it shows the judiciary just how confusing the rule of law is in Zimbabwe.

I am sure that if we were to really check out the records, Constitutional changes have caused a few deaths in Zimbabwe.

And much, much more.

A third case concerns charges being pressed against the former Minister of Finance.

The female judge that is overseeing the case is under pressure to convict the accused and the government have threatened to revisit a case of murder that involved the judge’s husband.

He has been out on bail for murder, but for years the powers that be have not ‘pursued’ the case. Now the ruling party begin to apply pressure to achieve a possibly skewed justice.

And what is stopping the regime from going ahead with the judge’s husband’s murder charge? Even if she does convict the former Minister? Let’s not forget that ‘duplicity’ is ZANU PF’s middle name…

Take care.

‘debvhu