Officials charged Attorney General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele in November with “acting contrary to or inconsistent with his duty as a public officer in violation of section 174 (1) of the Criminal Law (Codification Reform) Act.
Gula-Ndebele is said to have met with former NMB Bank executive James Mushore while the top banker was on the Zimbabwean police’s Wanted List, informing him that he would not be arrested if he returned to the country from London where he had fled.
The meeting was apparently held without the government’s knowledge or permission.
Gula-Ndebele was suspended three days after he sought a court order barring Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, the Officer Commanding Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Serious Fraud Squad, Simon Nyathi, and his deputy Assistant Commissioner Alison Nyamupaguma, as well as the officer commanding the squad’s “Team 3”, Superintendent Edward Marodza from interfering with the running of his office.
“I am the Attorney General of Zimbabwe. I have not resigned, nor have I been removed from office,” Gula-Ndebele says in his court application. “I am obliged to discharge my constitutional duties independently. I will not accept a situation where unprofessional fingers run my office, for this has the effect of undermining the rule of law in the country,” the application says, adding: “The duty to prosecute all criminal matters is vested in the Attorney General by section 76 (4) and (5) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe. As long as I am the Attorney General of Zimbabwe, the respondents cannot direct me on the exercise of my functions.”
Chihuri and his deputies immediately filed opposing papers arguing that the charges being preferred against Gula-Ndebele arose from his non disclosure to the police that Mushore was in the country and that he had clandestinely met him at some private restaurant where he had promised him that he would not be prosecuted.
“At all material times, he was fully aware that Mushore was under a warrant of apprehension issued by the Magistrate’s Court and a fugitive from justice who had left the country through an undesignated point of exit,” the opposing affidavit reads.
The investigatory tribunal; announced by Misheck Sibanda, chief secretary to President Mugabe and Cabinet; includes two justices and a lawyer, and will investigate the situation and will then recommend whether Gula-Ndebele should remain in office. Judge Chinembiri Bhunu will head the tribunal.
Mugabe has the power to revoke the suspension based on the tribunal’s recommendation; otherwise, Gula-Ndebele could face a fine or up to 15 years in prison.
Mushore was on the police’s Wanted List from 2004 until his October arrest on suspicion of violating hard currency exchange regulations and immigration laws.
Banks, including the country’s central bank, have admitted buying hard currency, which is valued at US$1 to 30,000 Zimbabwe dollars, at black market rates – $1 USD to Z$2 million – to help pay off the country’s expenses.
Political analysts have suggested the charges against Gula-Ndebele are politically motivated because of his refusal to sanction some politically related state prosecutions and because of his reported conflict with Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa concerning the reported plans by the Ministry of Justice to decrease the power of the AG’s office. Â
Post published in: News