Wilson Chipangura, Guest Reporter
HARARE – The illegal extension of Luke Malaba’s term as the country’s Chief Justice is a “trial run” for scrapping other term limits by President Emmerson Mnangagwa while consolidating power by capturing the judiciary.
Human Rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, made the revelations on Friday in a virtual interview on Magamba TV’s satirical show The Week anchored by Comrade Fatso.
“The onslaught is deliberate. It is meant for power retention obviously, the constitution is just being seen as an inconvenient document,” Mtetwa said.
“I don’t think really there was a desire to give people the right that chapter 4 in the constitution says we have and because they don’t want the constitution to come in the way of power retention they must then go for the courts and capture the courts so that the courts will interpret the constitution in the manner that those in power want the right diluted.
“This is why we are seeing the current debacle with the outgoing Chief Justice who they want to retain. You can only desperately want to retain someone because you know what they are going to do. I can not believe that with all those judges in the superior courts, he is the only person who can become Chief Justice.
“Why are they so obsessed with returning him? What is it that he can do which other judges can not do? Surely this must be an insult to the other judges of the Constitutional Court to say that out of all of you, he can only be Chief Justice but it is quite obvious that his retention is meant to complement the power retention,” said Mtetwa.
The award winning Human Rights lawyer also elaborated that the point to change the term limit of the Chief Justice set a dangerous precedence in the country which will be used in the future to amend the constitution to suit the agenda of the ruling elites.
“The attempt is deliberately designed to extend other terms. If you can change the constitution in order to return the Chief Justice, it follows that the term limits that are enjoyed by the Executive can also be changed in similar fashion.
“The President will already be there. If the two term limit that President should stick to in the constitution is dealt with in the same way come end of second term for sitting President, what’s gonna stop them from doing exactly that.
“This is a trial run for themselves and not just for themselves but also for the oversight institutions. We have these various commissions that have got term limits, if they have commissioners who are quite pliable and will do whatever they are told to do, it follows that their term limits will also be changed.
“Basically these guys are saying we can throw away that constitution and forget about it because they do as they please anyway particularly if they retain a judiciary that will happily interpret the law to suit whatever the current situation demands according to politicians,” she said.
Malaba who recently reached the retirement age, got a controversial extension of his term in May this year by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The extension of the retirement age has sparked opposition from constitutional law activists which has seen the matter being taken to court.