HARARE – The High Court has ordered the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) to allow rights lawyer Rose Hanzi to consult in private with jailed MPs Job Sikhala and Godfrey Sithole.
Hanzi was barred from meeting the two MPs who are currently locked up at Chikirubi Maximum Security Prison.
The lawyer filed a court application citing justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, the prisons commissioner general and officer in charge of Chikurubi protesting the “unlawful” conduct by prison wardens.
Justice Emilia Muchawa of the Harare High Court on Monday granted an order in her favour.
The judge ruled: “The respondents’ refusal to allow the applicant to consult in private with her client Job Sikhala be and hereby declared unlawful.
“The respondents shall pay costs of suit.
“An order be and is hereby granted compelling the respondents to allow applicants to consult in private with her clients Job Sikhaka and Godfrey Sithole incarcerated at Chikirubi Maximum Security Prison.”
The two lawmakers were denied bail in June following their arrest on allegations of inciting public violence following the abduction and killing of Citizens Coalition for Change activist Moreblessing Ali.
On Monday, Harare magistrate Stanford Mambanje dismissed Sikhala’s application for refusal of further remand in a case in which he is accused of defeating the course of justice.
The magistrate dismissed his application saying that the courts do not decide trial dates.
“Courts are usually not involved in the matter of setting dates, the dates are set by the set down offices,” said Mambanje.
Sikhala’s lawyer, Jeremiah Bamu had argued that there was a likelihood that they will keep pushing back the trial date to punish the Zengeza West MP.
