adminSEEKING legal recourse is the best thing warring parties need for conflict resolution.
This route enables parties to find each other and justice to prevail.
However, the legal route comes with outcomes that will never please both parties.
In some cases, lighter sentences are passed after protracted trials and hearings while, in other scenarios, stiffer penalties are passed after short hearings.
In the worst cases, some matters are dismissed for lack of merit, leaving warring parties heartbroken.
The outcome of such cases won’t be fair, especially to the losers.
Be it at village courts, criminal and civil courts, there are losers and winners.
To the losers, they don’t need to be hopeless since they can always appeal for justice to prevail.
Sadly, there are some people who don’t take court business seriously.
This can be evidenced by people who are constantly warned, jailed and fined against contempt of court.
There are even some who breach court orders issued against them out of ignorance and arrogance.
Such cases of people breaching court rulings are rife in maintenance issues, child custody matters and domestic violence cases.
There are some hotheads, who brag of powerful connections, while breaking the law after being given court orders.
It’s high time people know that it is a punishable offence to breach court orders.
Contempt of court usually comes with hefty fines or custodial sentences.
In some cases, it can attract both a fine and a custodial sentence.
This should come as a lesson for everyone to take court business seriously.
In yesterday’s issue of this newspaper, a daring Buhera woman confessed she fled to Harare, with her two minor children, after her former husband was granted custody of the kids.
The defiant woman confirmed she had no choice but to breach the court order passed by a Murambinda magistrate.
She has been playing hide-and-seek with her former husband for the past two years and even has intentions to approach the High Court to appeal against the order.
She lost the right to have custody of the children following a report, compiled by a probation officer, which showed she has been leaving the minors unattended as she engaged in sex work.
Despite losing the court case, she claims her husband was not fit to look after the kids.
However, the Buhera woman erred by not taking court business seriously.
She committed a serious offence.
She might be right, in some of her arguments, but she can’t hide from the fact that she is breaking the law.
She can’t ignore the ruling of a lower court and then expect that a higher court can take her seriously.
It’s called approaching the High Court with dirty hands.
Undermining court business, especially court orders, is a serious breach of the law.
It’s high time people consult legal experts to ensure they are not found on the wrong side of law.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter