The government recently issued a directive barring magistrates from summoning traditional leaders to courts over decisions made at traditional courts.
This was revealed by Vice President Kembo Mohadi on Wednesday while speaking at a meeting with chiefs from the Midlands province in Gweru. He said:
We have had chiefs complaining that they are being dragged to the Magistrates’ Courts after they have made their decisions at traditional courts.
I met with Chief (Fortune) Charumbira (president of the Chiefs Council) over the issue and after that I discussed the matter with President (Emmerson) Mnangagwa and there is now a directive that it should never happen again.
You are being looked down upon (by being summoned to the Magistrates’ Courts) and we don’t want that.
Mohadi said that it was disrespectful for chiefs to be summoned by magistrates because of judgements they would have made at their courts. He said the judgements should not be questioned.
Revisit the magistrate court and the traditional /local courts act to deal with appeals from chiefs’courts.magistrates who summoned chiefs did so bcz of lack of procedural link btn them.note: cases from magistrates are reviewed by a judje of the high court as are judjements of the HC in the supreme court.
Are we not creating a dangerous precedence here?