High Court dismisses Malaba contempt case

Harare (New Ziana) – The High Court on Thursday dismissed an urgent application by the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (ZHRNGOF) to have Chief Justice Luke Malaba jailed for alleged contempt of court.

The application had been filed after Chief Justice Malaba returned to work following the lodging of an appeal to the Supreme Court against last month’s High Court judgement which stated that he could not benefit from a Constitutional amendment to extend his tenure of office beyond 70 years.

Once the government lodged the appeal, it had the effect of setting aside the High Court Judgement, allowing Justice Malaba to return to work.

The move prompted Musa Kika, ZHRNGOF executive director to file an urgent application seeking arrest of Chief Justice Malaba for alleged contempt of court.

But, High Court judges Justices Amy Tsanga and Slyvia Chirawu-Mugomba dismissed the case.

“The application for civil imprisonment for the first respondent (Justice Malaba) for contempt of court is dismissed,” the operative part of the judgment said.

Kika’s lawyers said they respected the court’s judgement.

“Unfortunately the application has been dismissed. At the moment the court has just read the operative part to say the application has been dismissed and we have not yet been favored with the full judgement so we will want to get the judgement today and upon getting the judgement we will study it and discuss it with our client and then we will inform you of the way forward,” the lawyers told the media.

New Ziana