Citizens' "Tolerance For Injustice" Enhancing Human Rights Abuses - Magaisa
3 years agoFri, 25 Sep 2020 11:45:56 GMT
Alex Tawanda Magaisa, a former Chief of Staff in the office of the late former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai has suggested that the citizenry’s tolerance for injustice is enabling the state to continue harassing MDC Alliance legislator Joana Mamombe.
He was commenting on the state’s move to have the Harare West legislator appear in court despite her doctors suggesting that she was not fit to do so on health grounds.
Posting on Twitter, Magaisa who is also a law lecturer in the United Kingdom suggested that the state was exhibiting double standards as a similar previous case was treated differently. He said:
When former Minister Prisca Mupfumira claimed mental unfitness to stand trial, the court believed her. When Joanna Mamombe made the same plea, the court sent her to prison. One is ZANU PF, the other is MDC Alliance. Our tolerance for nonsense & injustice a danger to ourselves.
Mamombe is jointly charged with Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova for staging their abduction in May this year.
Her lawyers told the court recently that she had mental disorders hence unfit to appear in court. The state, however, wants Mamombe examined by two government doctors, as per the Health Act, since there is “no proof as to when she will be fit for trial.”
Mamombe was on Thursday put under the care of the superintendent of Harare Remand Prison for two weeks to assess her mental problem as she awaits trial.
Her incarceration has been criticised by many including a mental health doctor, Denver Ncube who the government should have trusted “the diagnosis of the doctor” who concluded that Mamombe was unwell.
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