Intratrek director, Wicknell Chivayo, who approached the Supreme Court challenging his conviction of 10 years ago, has requested the presiding judges to recuse themselves, arguing the sentiments expressed by one of them during the last hearing would not accord him a fair hearing of his appeal.
BY CHARLES LAITON
Yesterday, the matter was briefly heard before Justices Anne-Mary Gowora, Ben Hlatshwayo and Antonia Guvava.
The matter was eventually postponed indefinitely after the State representative, Sharon Fero, made submissions requesting Chivayo’s legal team to correct some irregularities and inconsistencies in the businessman’s heads of argument and grounds of appeal.
During the previous hearing, in July this year, Chivayo’s legal team of Advocate Thabani Mpofu and Wilson Manase urged the court to proceed with the matter despite the absence of a newly-constructed court record.
But Justice Gowora indicated she would not do so for fear of “getting arrested”.
The remarks by Justice Gowora prompted Chivayo to instruct his lawyers to request that she recuses herself from the matter together with her colleagues.
In a letter addressed to the chief registrar of the Supreme Court, Sithembinkosi Msipa, dated September 12, 2016, Manase said it was in the interest of justice for the bench to be changed.
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“…the appellant (Chivayo), who is our client, has learnt that the same bench is due to hear the matter in October 2016. During the (previous) hearing, Hon Justice Gowora expressed some discomfort in dealing with this matter. Our client, the appellant, has requested that in view of the sentiments expressed by the honourable judge, he would request that the matter be heard by a different set of judges,” Manase wrote.
“Can you please, with due respect, liaise with the honourable judges and express our client’s sentiments? We believe they would not be offended by this request, as the matter has not yet come before them …”
However, in response to the request, Justice Gowora, through the chief registrar, said she had no problems dealing with the matter.
“We placed your letter before the honourable judge as requested and the judge indicated that she had no problem in dealing with the matter. As such, the matter remains set down as indicated on the notice of set-down before the bench that heard it on July 21, 2016,” Msipa said.
