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Court Reporter
A High Court judge has recused herself from the case in which suspended Supreme Court judge, Justice Francis Bere, is challenging the legality of the tribunal set up to inquire into his misconduct allegations.
The hearing of Justice Bere’s application had been set before Justice Charewa, who had previously handled two separate applications brought by the suspended judge in the battle to quash the tribunal proceedings.
Yesterday the judge found it unfit for her to preside over Justice Bere’s third application that had been allocated to her.
This means the application, which had been on the list of “opposed matters”, will now be heard by another judge on a date yet to be announced. The development is likely to delay the tribunal proceedings, which had been set to resume on Thursday.
Last month, the tribunal stopped its proceedings until the High Court has ruled on a defence application to review a tribunal decision not to delay the hearing.
Justice Bere wants the tribunal proceedings to be stayed until the legal issue is decided.
The tribunal refused to do this, but after the judge filed a review application of the tribunal decision rejecting his objection to the inquiry, Justice Simbi Mubako, who is chairing the inquiry, agreed to halt proceedings until the application to review the earlier decision not to delay matters, further had been dealt with.
As it stands, there are two live applications by Justice Bere before the High Court, one to cancel the tribunal and one that, in effect, seeks to have the tribunal stop sitting until the first one is decided.
Justice Bere is being charged with three counts of improper conduct after a Harare lawyer accused him of interfering in a civil case.
He denied the charges, before challenging the whole tribunal process, seeking to invalidate Proclamation 1 of 2020, the legal instrument, which was issued by President Mnangagwa, at the request of the Judicial Service Commission, established the tribunal.
The judge, who was serving on both the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court benches, was suspended from the bench in March this year, pending a probe into potential misconduct.
He is accused of meddling in a civil case involving the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) and his relatives.
Justice Bere allegedly telephoned Mr Itai Ndudzo, who was representing Zinara, asking him to consider settling a civil dispute pitting Zinara against Fremus Enterprises.
Complaints against him were raised before Deputy Chief Justice, Elizabeth Gwaunza during a court hearing and Mr Ndudzo was asked to make the complaint in writing.
In his defence, Justice Bere claimed he only contacted Mr Ndudzo in the context of their personal relationship, dating back to the days when they were both members of the Zimbabwe Football Association Ethics Committee.
He described the complaint as a falsehood meant to taint his record.
This is the second time Justice Bere has been the subject of a serious complaint, although he was cleared of wrongdoing in the first case.
Online Reporter