‘Mnangagwa has thrown the justice delivery system into the pit latrine’

The opposition has accused Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his ruling Zanu PF Government of having literally thrown the country’s justice delivery system into the pit laterine saying the incumbent regime has ‘since consigned the principles of separation of powers of the three arms of government into dustbins’.

The Nelson Chamisa-led MDC Alliance made these remarks following the denial of bail this Thursday on its jailed youth organiser, Godfrey Kurauone, who was arrested on ‘flimsy’ charges, including singing a protest song denigrating Mnangagwa.

In a statement, the opposition party’s youth assembly national spokesperson Stephen Chuma, who is also on the police list of undersiege opposition figures and activists wanted for ‘interviews’, said the verdict to deny Kurauone bail was ‘unacceptable and barbaric’.

“The denial of bail today of MDC Alliance Youth Organizer Godfrey Kurauone by Emmerson Mnangagwa’s brutal and corrupt regime is totally unacceptable and barbaric,” Chuma’s statement reads in part.

“This follows hotly after refusals of bail to journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and Jacob Ngarivhume by the High Court few weeks ago. It is abundantly clear that Emmerson Mnangagwa’s corrupt regime has since consigned the principles of separation of powers of the three arms of government into dustbins,” the opposition said.

According to Chuma, Zimbabwe has now plunged into a crisis in which a domineering Executive now gives ‘political orders’ to the judiciary and this, he says, is upsetting legal balance.

“What we now have is a domineering Executive that is giving political orders to Judiciary thereby upsetting legal balance. The influence of the Executive on the Judiciary effectively puts our justice delivery system into a pit latrine. This is sad chapter in the history of country!” he said.

The MDC-A also contends that regardless of the ‘persecutions by prosecution’ on its party officials, it was not going to relent in the ‘fight against corruption’, widely blamed on the bungling Harare administration.

Political analysts and opinion leaders alike, have accused Mnangagwa of being more aggressive in his stance against democratic provisions- such as engaging in protests- than his long-ruling predecessor, the late Robert Mugabe who was toppled in November 2017.

On July 31, the Zanu PF Government foiled the street protests organised by hard-pressed Zimbabweans with the support of the opposition parties, following a massive deployment of state security forces across all the major cities and towns in the troubled southern African country.

Previously revered as the breadbasket of the region, the country has now literally become a basket case after years of economic challenges birthed after a controversial land redistribution programme during the turn of the 21st century.

Zwnews