THE Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) last week filed an application at the Kwekwe Magistrates’ Court seeking the authority to approach the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) challenging Chief Gwesela’s verdict compelling one of his subjects to pay a beast for failing to observe a traditional ritual.
By NQOBANI NDLOVU
Seventy-four-year-old Samson Mabukwa, a villager from Zhombe in Kwekwe, Midlands province, was recently fined a beast by Chief Gwesela for tilling his land on a day traditionally set aside for customary activities.
Mabukwa denied the charge, arguing he did not subscribe to African traditions, as he was a member of an apostolic faith sect.
On Wednesday, Mabukwa, through his lawyer, Lizwe Jamela of the ZLHR, filed an application at the magistrates’ court challenging his sentence, and seeking that the case be referred to the ConCourt for determination.
“On July 26, 2017, Jamela filed an application in the Kwekwe Magistrates’ Court requesting for referral of the matter to the Constitutional Court for a determination of some questions, especially when customary law seems to be clashing with fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution, and magistrate Vimbayi Mutukwa granted the application,” the rights group said.
Jamela argued that the indiscriminate application of African traditional religious beliefs to all citizens within Chief Gwesela’s jurisdiction was a violation of Mabukwa’s freedom of conscience as guaranteed in Section 60 of the Constitution.
Section 60 of the Constitution provides that: “Every person has the right to freedom of conscience, which includes freedom of thought, opinion, religion or belief and freedom to practice and propagate and give expression to their thought, opinion, religion or belief, whether in public or in private and whether alone or together with others.”
