daniel chigunwe
Freedom Mupanedemo Midlands Bureau
Beer binges where imbibers in a drunken stupor, start fighting before fatally attacking each other, dominate the roll of murder cases at the High Court, and there is need to consider whether or not to allow these public beer gatherings, a High Court judge has said.
Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Evangelista Kabasa, who was officially opening the Gweru Circuit High Court on Monday, said there was a worrying trend in which most murder cases were due to the influence of alcohol on the part of the perpetrators.
Beer joints and beer gatherings have of late ceased to be merrymaking places, but havens for violence and fatal conflicts.
Justice Kabasa said for the circuit that is to run from January 24 to February 4, a total of 12 cases have been set down for trial.
“The circumstances of these murder cases mostly speak to the lack of self-control in the face of conflict and the impairment of sound judgment due to beer consumption,” said Justice Kabasa.
She said beer drinking had traditionally been regarded as a way imbibers pass time with friends, but was turning to be the source of violence.
“If beer drinking ceases to be a merrymaking past time, but instead creates a fertile ground for conflict and escalation of violence, it is probably time that the society weighs the pros and cons of public gatherings where beer is imbibed with reckless abandon,” she said.
Justice Kabasa said the High Court was also forced to delay concluding some of the murder cases after the accused skipped bail.
Murder suspects, she said, should be scrutinised before being granted bail, which she emphasised was a right.
“With regards to the trials which failed to take off due to the non-availability of the accused persons, there is a tendency at times to quickly jump to the conclusion that if bail had been denied to these people, their trials would have commenced and been finalised.
“Bail is a right to be denied only where the interests of the proper administration of justice, the protection of the efficacy of the bail system and the protection of the public demands that it be denied,” she said.
Justice Kabasa said it was high time the Midlands Province had a permanent High Court to clear the backlog.
“We cannot talk of a Zimbabwe in which a world class justice prevails as our vision and with core values that speak to, among other things, accessibility of court facilities, when we still have hordes of litigants travelling to either Harare or Bulawayo in order to access justice,” she said.
Online Reporter