Courts benefitting from factionalism as there is no single centre of power – Beatrice Mtetwa

The courts has been praised for making fair rulings at the risk of upsetting top officials in the ruling Zanu PF. Human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa has said that the ongoing factional fights in the ruling Zanu-PF are helping the judiciary as there is no longer a single centre of power. The High court has made rulings against First Lady Grace Mugabe, for seizing houses after a botched deal over a diamond ring. The Magistrates’ Court has also freed many activists and residents arrested for protesting against the government.

Speaking to New Zimbabwe, Mtetwa said:

Factionalism is somehow helping as well in that there isn’t one centre of political power anymore; so generally the judges are now looking at the law and the facts and not the politics because one does not even know whose politics one is talking about in a particular case,

On the Other hand, Douglas Mwonzora, the MDC-T secretary-general said that the courts should not be given credit for merely doing what they are supposed to be doing:

We cannot hail the courts for doing what they are supposed to do,

These are things the courts must be doing in a democracy. It must not look so unreal for courts to do the correct thing. They have done nothing spectacular.

In courts, you don’t deserve credit for acquitting people who must be acquitted in the first place.

More: New Zimbabwe

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