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Harare Bureau
PROSECUTOR General Johannes Tomana, who is locked in a legal battle with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), has requested a judge from outside Zimbabwe or a retired one to preside over his urgent chamber application to stop proceedings leading to his possible removal from office.
Tomana was recently served with letters from JSC seeking his views on his suitability to hold the office of the PG considering his defiance of two court orders. Letters from JSC are steps towards instituting a disciplinary tribunal to determine Tomana’s suitability to continue in the esteemed office.
Tomana, through his lawyers Mambosasa Legal Practitioners, filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court last Thursday seeking to bar JSC from instituting any disciplinary proceedings against him.
Before the hearing time of the urgent chamber application, Tomana’s lawyers wrote to the High Court requesting the court to first consider the issue of bringing in a foreign based judge or any other local judge who is not currently in service.
Tomana argues that since he was objecting to the letter written by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, his subordinates at the High Court were not the best judges to deal with the urgent chamber application.
In the letter to High Court judge Justice Lavender Makoni, Tomana’s lawyers said a judge who is not serving in Zimbabwe can best handle the matter. “The Constitution of Zimbabwe allows for the appointment of an acting judge. Precedent also shows that in related matters, judges have been appointed from outside the jurisdiction,” the lawyers said.
The lawyers said Tomana will not get any justice if a judge serving at the High Court of Zimbabwe hears the application.
Justice Makoni postponed the hearing of the matter to next week.
derick.khumalo