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Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Court Reporter
THE Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) has reported deregistered Bulawayo lawyer Mr Russell Dzete to the police and courts for allegedly practising without a licence.
Dzete is among 25 lawyers who were last year barred from practising by the profession’s regulatory authority.
In a letter addressed to the Officer Commanding Police in Bulawayo Province, Senior Assistant Commissioner Learn Ncube and copied to the Registrar of the High Court, Judicial Service Commission (JSC), Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services, the Deeds Registry and the provincial magistrate in charge of Bulawayo, Mr Enias Magate, of the LSZ said Mr Dzete violated section 12 of the Legal Practitioners Act.
“The above practitioner (Mr Dzete) has been practising without a valid practising certificate in violation of section 12 of the Legal Practitioners Act. He does not have the right of audience before any police station, prison, courts or lodge any document on behalf of clients at the Deeds Registry as he has not regularised his licensing status,” stated LSZ.
According to LSZ, Mr Dzete was last licensed under Maseko Law Chambers in 2017.
“By a copy of this letter, we are kindly requesting your office to prosecute Mr Dzete should he be found violating the law. Kindly circulate this information to all stations in Bulawayo province and also bring to our attention any violations or action you take against him,” read the LSZ letter, which was signed by its executive secretary Mr Edward Mapara.
In March this year, Mr Dzete was convicted of fraud by Bulawayo regional magistrate Mr Joseph Mabeza after swindling a home seeker of more than $13 000 with two other accomplices.
They were each fined $700 or eight months in prison. Two years in jail each were wholly suspended on condition that Dzete and his accomplices restitute the complainant $3 170.
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