Lawyers kicked out

Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Reporter
The Supreme Court has thrown out an appeal by two junior lawyers who were seeking reinstatement to the Advocates’ Chambers where they were evicted for breaching the association’s rules. Mr Taona Sibanda and Mr Silvester Hashiti were admitted to the Advocates’ Chambers as pupil advocates and they had to undergo tutelage for three years before they became independent advocates. Advocates are different from attorneys in the sense that they only operate on referral basis.

They do not get briefings from clients but they get instructions from attorneys who deal with clients directly. Attorneys are governed by Law Society of Zimbabwe while advocates are governed by the Bar Association. While the two were at Advocates’ Chambers in Harare, they decided to operate as independent advocates before the end of the tutelage period.

They accepted briefs in their own names and operated independently, a development that resulted in the Bar Association terminating their contracts and ejecting them from the chambers early this year.

Bitter about the decision, Mr Hashiti and Mr Sibanda took the matter to the High Court seeking reinstatement but the application was thrown out.

The duo appealed to the Supreme Court against the dismissal of their application. Justice Vernanda Ziyambi sitting with Justices Paddington Garwe and Bharat Patel on Tuesday dismissed the appeal after agreeing with the High Court’s findings.