HARARE – Three Harare lawyers were freed on Z$20,000 bail on Monday after they were charged with defeating the course of justice over allegations they plagiarised an affidavit used in a Constitutional Court application.
Judgement is pending in the Constitutional Court matter argued last October, in which lawyer Joshua Chirambwe challenged the legality of Prosecutor General Kumbirai Hodzi’s appointment to the position by President Emmerson Mnangagwa after he flunked public interviews.
In a case that will raise eyebrows given Hodzi’s personal interest, prosecutors now say the affidavit used by Chirambwe was similar in parts to another one filed by one Simbarashe Zuze before the matter was abandoned in February 2019.
That earlier application was abandoned, the prosecution says, because Zuze – who was the applicant – “does not exist.”
Last week, Advocate Thabani Mpofu, who argued the case at the ConCourt, was charged with defeating the course of justice and perjury over the Zuze affidavit.
Advocate Choice Damiso, before whom the affidavit was sworn, was arrested and released after being interviewed as a witness.
Appearing in the same court as Chirambwe on Monday was Lawman Chimuriwo and Tinashe Makanza, the instructing lawyer in the Zuze case.
In his warned and cautioned statement, Chirambwe said the charges were “false and malicious.”
According to the prosecution, Mpofu, Makanza and Choice Damiso allegedly drafted an affidavit in the name of Simbarashe Zuze who does not exist.
The state alleges that they made it appear as if Zuze had sworn an affidavit before Damiso, with help from Makanza, who professed to be his lawyer.
It is further alleged that the lawyers conspired to lodge the said founding affidavit at the Constitutional Court before Justice Paddington Garwe bearing only the name of Simbarashe Zuze, without any other identification details under case number CCZ 03/2019.
That case was struck off the roll because it was fatally defective.
But just days later, Mpofu allegedly connived with lawyers Chirambwe and Lawman Chimuriwo to defeat course of justice by “disturbing investigations” regarding the existence of Zuze.
It is alleged that they plagiarised the affidavit of Zuze and made a similar application at the Constitutional Court, this time with Chirambwe as the applicant.
Prosecutors say they did this knowing that Zuze’s application had been challenged on the basis that he was a fictitious person.
All the lawyers are facing a charge of defeating the course of justice.
Meanwhile, in a video released over the weekend, a man claiming to be the Simbarashe Zuze who filed the court application, said he had twice been interviewed by police and made to write his signature at least 15 times.
He maintained that the prosecution of the lawyers was malicious.
The Law Society of Zimbabwe said it was concerned by the arrests, saying in a statement: “A review of the recent arrests shows a disturbing pattern of intimidation, harassment of lawyers and associating them with the causes of their clients.”
