I was surprised by the Constitutional judges on why Prosecutor-General Johannes Tomana would regard giving a certificate for private prosecution a threat to national interest. But after looking at all possible scenarios I came to understand him.
By Chris Danga,Our Reader
To him and indeed all Zanu PF apologists national interest simply means the interest of those in Zanu PF.Tomana knows very well that the majority of these Zanu PF guys have real dirty hands not only on corruption, but other crimes like murder,rape and torture.
What he simply means is that he doesn’t want to set a precedence by allowing private prosecution.If it succeeds on this guy the the most probable person in line would be the killers of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s aides in 1999 by a petrol bomb on their car.
They probably know the suspects.The courts similarly declared that the suspects had a case to answer and should be brought to his defence, but Tomana simply ignored the orders. It was a case where conviction was obvious so the only escape route was to refuse prosecution.
Then all those whose relatives were murdered in cold blood by people they know but where the PG refused to prosecute on political grounds would obviously resort to private prosecution.
The Prosecutor General’s office has the habit of sidelining the prosecution of politically-sensitive cases if they are quite sure that a conviction will be obtained. They simply refuse to prosecute in order to protect the criminal.
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In the case in question here is a 16-year-old girl reporting that she had been raped, but the prosecution turns a blind eye. In Zimbabwe rape is such a serious crime that for a common man, even the suspicion of “raping” your own wife will result in you being locked behind bars until the courts determine otherwise.
How then can such crime be said not to warrant prosecution. Why not put the person to his defense and let the courts decide?
So the prosecution is simply parading Zanu PF interests as national interests and deliberately applying the law selectively.
