Court officials, lawyer at loggerheads

Midlands Bureau
SHURUGWI lawyer, Mapfumo Mavese, has picked up a fight with court officials at the local magistrates’ courts accusing them of corruption and deliberately trying to drive him out of business.
Mavese said he was making payments at the courts but was not being issued with receipts.
He said one of the junior officers at the courts was doing duties meant for senior officers such as processing court papers.

Mavese of Mapfumo Mavese and Associates said the junior officer was mainly to blame for the problems bedevilling the Shurugwi court.
“This officer (name withheld) has become a law unto himself. He prepares court papers when he is just a clerk of court. A clerk of court does not prepare papers. The fact that he does this and nothing is done to stop him shows that he is working in cahoots with his seniors.

When we pay fees on behalf of plaintiffs or defendants for civil court processes that include summons and notice of trial, he does not give us receipts. This is affecting our operations as we have to pay again for the same service when the matter is brought before the court,” said Mavese.

He accused Shurugwi court officials of working to push him out of business.
The lawyer said at times he leaves his clients’ papers for periods that stretch up to two weeks with officials telling him to keep checking for his receipts.

Said Mavese: “These officials are working in cahoots. They want me out of Shurugwi for reasons best known to them. I at times spend three to 14 days going to the courts to get my clients’ papers with no success. The problem is also affecting people who are not represented.

Litigants who are not represented end up paying bribes. The junior officer is supposed to just stamp the papers but he makes it complicated by keeping our papers for days on end.”

Mavese said he had engaged the Chief Magistrate’s office in Harare to intervene and stop the alleged rot at the Shurugwi courts after reportedly getting no joy from the Midlands offices in Gweru.

He had a copy of a letter that he wrote to the Chiefs magistrate dated April 14, 2014.
In the letter, Mavese accused Shurugwi court officials of theft and misappropriation of government revenue in civil cases.

Said Mavese in his letter: “We advise that the said court official in our dealings with him as an office has been pocketing money meant for government revenue in civil court proceeding and he will issue court processes as if revenue has been received. We understand that his conduct has also since extended to the general public”.

In the letter Mavese lists 14 cases which he alleged his office handed the relevant revenue to the junior officer but no receipts were issued.
Mavese said a team from the Provincial Magistrate’s office once visited him last month but failed to solve the matter.

A Harare lawyer, Ngonidzashe Manyangadze said the conduct of Shurugwi court officials was also affecting other lawyers outside the mining town.

He said: “As lawyers we work together, we engage and assist one another where the need arises. The court officials’ conduct is making clients lose confidence in us as our appearance in court will be spaced. We end up losing business and this appears to be a strategy to achieve that”.

The junior officer dismissed the allegations levelled against him as “sentiments of a bitter, incompetent man”.
He said: “It is only one person complaining yet we deal with many law firms. Mapfumo is the only one making malicious claims. For the record, I don’t receipt or receive cash. That is done by someone else. It’s not the first time that he has done this. He thinks we are channelling clients to rival law firms”.

He said there were many lawyers who spend time without getting into court but they never complain or come up with funny accusations like Mapfumo. He said Mapfumo should appreciate that it is people who choose who they want to represent them.

“The court does not handle papers for anyone. In Mapfumo’s case, it is a question of a person who lives close to the dam and it’s easy for him to think that all the fish in the dam are his. But you can’t catch them, (fish) if you don’t have the equipment.”

Magistrate Evia Matura said she could not comment as she was not allowed to entertain the press by her superiors.
She referred all questions to her superior, Phathekile Msipa the provincial magistrate for Midlands.

Msipa acknowledged having heard about Mavese’s issue but refused to comment arguing that she was not allowed to do so.
She referred this reporter to the office of the Chief Magistrate, Mishrod Guvamombe in Harare.