MARONDERA magistrate Shane Kubonera has been accused of making a biased ruling in a matter where Mangwiza Chigwedere labelled his father and former Education minister Aeneas Chigwedere, a wizard.
BY Jairos Saunyama
In an application for review filed at the High Court (HC 3401/16) on April 1, Mangwiza argued that Kubonera, who handled the witchcraft case at Marondera Civil Court, was biased in his ruling and that he applied general law instead of customary law when he presided over the matter.
Mangwiza accused Kubonera of being bribed to arrive at the ruling and asked the courts to review the judgment.
“I personally feel that there is great bias in the judgment as to the laws applied and proceedings that took place. The respondent’s lawyer is there to protect his clients though he is not the only one blocking justice, but mainly it is the learned presiding officer, Shane Kubonera and I believe everyone in the country knows that this is a customary law (case) and a local court issue, which has been dealt for years by village heads, headmen, and chiefs,” he said.
“In my opinion, I believe his mind was seriously corrupted by external forces, and I believe the external force was in the form of a bribe, as I have failed to find any other reasonable explanation on his misconduct and I stand to be corrected.”
Chigwedere, a Zanu PF stalwart and former Mashonaland East governor was last month freed by the Marondera Civil Court after the matter was rejected on the basis it was more of a spiritual than a civil matter.
But according to Mangwiza, Kubonera failed to apply his legal knowledge in dealing with the matter. “Subsection 3 of the customary Law and Local Courts Act Chapter 7.05 was supposed to be considered in the application of customary law. The learned presiding officer did not even apply or use the aforesaid section 3. This was at his fingertips, if not in his mind, word for word, but completely ignored it,” he said.
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Initially, Mangwiza filed the lawsuit in Harare, but presiding magistrate Brighton Pabwe rejected it and ordered both parties to have the matter settled in Marondera, where they reside.
Mangwiza approached the courts late last year accusing his father of practising witchcraft, claiming the latter’s goblins were terrorising other family members.
Chigwedere is being sued together with his second wife, Emilia Zharare, and the Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers’ Association.
