ASPIRING High Court judge, Jacob Manzunzu, who was last week served with court papers by the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) shortly after attending interviews for a High Court appointment, yesterday said the application for review of his acquittal on a 10-year-old criminal charge was part of a plot by his rivals to derail his plans to land a High Court judge post.
CHARLES LAITON SENIOR REPORTER
Manzunzu accused the NPA and a Harare woman, identified as Sibongile Manyimo, of raising the 10-year-old criminal charges to discredit and embarrass him ahead of the selection process. He was one of the 46 candidates interviewed last week to fill up six vacant posts at the High Court.
Manzunzu, who is former Master and Sheriff of the High Court, told NewsDay during an exclusive interview that sometime in 2012, Manyimo caused his arrest after accusing him of fraudulently facilitating the sale of her house leading to her eviction from the property.
Manzunzu, now Deputy Registrar of Botswana High Court, said he was not surprised that the NPA had gotten so involved in the matter together with Manyimo since the latter was politically connected.
“It’s not surprising that they came to serve me with the papers at the interview venue because it was a well-calculated move meant to discredit and embarrass me, in fact let me point out that I have no issues with the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) because I am not a practicing lawyer here in Zimbabwe,” he said.
“What surprises me is that some of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) officials who were co-ordinating the interviews were also involved in the smear campaign because one of them is the one who called some officials from the NPA alerted them of my presence. One wonders how the NPA knew I was attending an interview on that particular day.
“The whole thing was done to give an impression that I was arrested and it was simply done to embarrass me. The application for review had my address of service and it was not supposed to be served at the hotel [where the interviews were held] moreover the papers were filed with the court out of time.”
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Manzunzu said, in the application for review, the State was challenging the procedure that was adopted by the magistrates arguing that certain evidence was excluded by the magistrate during the trial which ought not to have been excluded.
“This case has its beginning and has its ugly face since certain people have been at every corner of my life trying to destroy me. The very case which I successfully defended in court should not have started this way because it was purely a civil matter,” Manzunzu said.
He further said Manyimo challenged the decision of the sheriff and she lost the matter in the High Court and Supreme Court.
“Since then, Manyimo has been trying to frustrate my efforts. This is why during the interview Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku asked me whether my move to Botswana was as a result of economic factors or it was as a result of running away from the law,” Manzunzu said.
