‘You’ll be solely missed Mbhambi’

Ray Goba

Correspondent

When the sad news broke, my initial reaction was one of disbelief.

In fact, I did not want to believe or accept that High Court judge, Justice Clement Bigboy Phiri or “Mbhambi” as he liked calling his friends from our days at the University of Zimbabwe Law School, had passed on.

Clement and I enrolled in 1981. We were the Class of 81, a dynamic class of freshmen coming in from different backgrounds.

Some were straight from high school, those were the lucky ones, others had just completed military conscription, yet others were returnees from Britain, compelled to return and study at the local university, yet others were former guerrillas, while others were former war collaborators.

The dynamism of this combination made for a first year class of mutually disagreeable law students in and out of class.

Some notable characters included Justice Ben Hlatswayo (acting Constitutional Court judge), Professor Welshman Ncube, Justice Charles Hungwe (Supreme Court), Innocent Gonese, the late Shepherd Nzombe, Luke Mhlaba, Victor Nkiwane, James Musemburi, Zine Chitepo, Patty Maramba, Lilian Mavhuna (Goredema), Mufuka, Tshuma, Don Middlemost, Ian Cameron, Mary Walsh, Rainor Robinson, the late Bruno Mugabe, Barry Bruce, Calvin Mantsebo, among others.

Clement Phiri distinguished himself by his ability to get on with everyone.

He had a disarmingly charming personality and a level of maturity that surpassed most of us who were given to squandering our stipends first before getting down to serious study.

I remember an occasion where he rescued one of our friends whose name shall remain anonymous of course, from a water drain on campus.

That rescued Mbhambi is now a top legal adviser in the Attorney General’s Office of a SADC state, whose further particulars shall also remain undisclosed lest the identity of that Mbhambi be inadvertently exposed.

Clement was a teetotaller to the end. He did not smoke anything.

He lived off campus with one Mufuka and others in a complex. I was resident in Carr Saunders Hall. On completion of my first degree, I joined the Office of the Attorney General as a public prosecutor in 1984.

Clement remained behind to complete the second degree in order to gain automatic qualification to private practice. I would return to complete the LLB degree in 1986.

Upon qualification, Clement was snapped by Messrs Coghlan Welsh and Guest, where he honed his skills in litigation. He later left the firm to pursue theological studies to join the priesthood of his Roman Catholic faith in South Africa.

He told me years later that he felt that he was being called to serve God. After a year or so of study, he decided not to become a priest.

Clement was somewhat disheartened by some of the things he witnessed which he wouldn’t particularise, but I got the sense that he would have pursued that calling if he could have been allowed to have a family.

I told him he could have come to join us in the Anglican faith, but he was so deeply Catholic he discounted that option.

Despite his acceptance that when the Pope speaks ex-Cathedra he makes church law, he believed that some changes to the calling of Catholic priesthood is inevitable sometime in the future.

On occasion, court time permitting, he would ask us to accompany him for lunch mass at the Catholic Cathedral. Instead of heading west to the Anglican Cathedral on Nelson Mandela Avenue I would go north with him, Harare Law Chambers are at the corner of both streets.

When my best man, the late Godfrey Mamvura, was diagnosed with cancer, Clement accompanied me to Michael Gelfand Clinic and Avenues Clinic.

He would be first to volunteer a prayer. Such was his Christian spirit.

Upon his return, he practised for his own account at Marondera until he came to the bar to which he had now been called.

I was out of the country then pursuing a personal interest in the United States of America. I would return to the AG’s Office for three years before accepting an offer of employment in Namibia where I would work for the Government for 13 years.

Upon my return, I found Clement was an advocate practising with, among others Adv Linus Mazonde, out of Harare Law Chambers. He was by then married to his dear wife whom I had the pleasure to meet.

I was toying with the idea of pursuing an academic career which would enable me to share my experiences gained in four countries on three continents in the field of law with younger students in law school.

I also had a long-cherished ambition to be an advocate. Clement had little difficulty convincing me to join Harare Law Chambers once I found him there.

He warned me that it would be tough financially, but would pay off in the long run. Now he is gone.

I remember the days we would struggle to meet our rent and operational costs due to clients failing to settle counsel fees on time or at all.

Clement represented any person who required his services. He did not specialise. Among his clients were politicians and high ranking public servants most of whom abused his magnanimity, leaving him to struggle to meet his obligations.

He also acted for his church and the business of one particular Order of Catholic nuns so much preoccupied his time that if he did not appear at his chambers for days, we would joke about his relationship with the sisters behind his back.

Clement soon heard about it and took it in good humour.

Having married a South African woman, he had the option to practise in South Africa where she was based and to take up South African citizenship, but he chose to work in his country of birth while she took care of the children in South Africa.

Clement was born to immigrant parents from Nyasaland (now Malawi) during the period of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

Considering the level of his integrity, remarkable Catholic work ethic and public spirit, he was indeed destined to higher calling.

Indeed, he was called from the bar to the bench and served diligently for nearly six years until his highest calling.

Mbhambi (mubharanzi), you shall be sorely missed.

Justice Phiri was born on June 24, 1960.

He studied law at the University of Zimbabwe and after completing his legal studies he worked briefly in the then Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development.

In 2004, Justice Phiri became an advocate, a position he held until he was appointed judge of the High Court on September 16, 2015.

Ray Goba is an advocate and former prosecutor general.