Zimbabwe’s aged Chief Justice Luke Malaba, who astonishingly rejected the evidence of vote-rigging to deny the MDC victory in the disputed last polls, refuses to go on pension.
Seventy-year-old Malaba’s unpopular judgment in 2018 saw ZANU PF leader, Emmerson Mnangagwa, become the “elected president” of the struggling country.
At the time the EU said: “The (Zimbabwe) electoral commission (ZEC) lacked full independence and appeared to not always act in an impartial manner.
“The final results as announced by the electoral commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency, and verifiability.”
Now it’s payback time – Malaba wants to defy the constitution and stay in office and 78-year-old Mnangagwa has no option but to side with him by extending his tenure.
However, the high court found that Mnangagwa’s five-year extension of the chief justice’s tenure was illegal. The government is appealing this ruling.
Last month a court in Zimbabwe ruled that the chief justice had to immediately go on pension, but the aged judge simply continued to go to work.
In another twist on Thursday a different court found that Malaba “was not in contempt of court”.
Malaba has had a cantankerous relationship with many other judges known to stick to the letter of the law.
Some of these judges have banded together to eject Malaba before the 2023 elections that many agree ZANU PF can not win or rig because of its unpopularity.
Until then suffering Zimbabweans can only wait and watch while their country crumbles under the weight of corruption and bad politics.
Even with the dodgy Justice Priscilla Makanyara Chigumba still chairing the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission the signs are evident ZANU PF has long passed its sell-by date.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum director Musa Kika on Friday filed an urgent application at the high court.
Kika wants Malaba barred from exercising functions of Chief Justice until the Supreme Court hears appeal against the May 15 judgment of the high court which said he was retired.
