HARARE – A judge dropped the case of Neville Mutsvangwa, the son of the women’s affairs minister Monica Mutsvangwa and the Zanu PF spokesman Chris Mutsvangwa, after she was summoned to State House to explain delays in the case, ZimLive can reveal.
Justice Esther Muremba of the Harare High Court was due to deliver judgement in Mutsvangwa’s bail appeal on Monday, after postponing ruling last week because she had not received a full record of proceedings from the lower court.
But in a dramatic development, the judge said she was standing down from the matter.
“I am recusing myself for personal reasons,” the judge said on Monday.
The matter will now be allocated to a different judge.
ZimLive can reveal that Justice Muremba has told the Judicial Service Commission that she felt “intimidated” after being summoned to State House on Wednesday last week for a meeting with President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi and Monica Mutsvangwa, the women’s affairs minister who is also Neville’s mother.
Mutsvangwa, according to JSC sources, used the meeting to complain bitterly that the judge was mishandling the case.
Mnangagwa reportedly asked the judge to explain the status of the case. The judge, our sources said, said she had never been summoned to such a forum and she was uneasy.
The source added: “She still explained that the delay in delivering her ruling in the bail application was a result of receiving the record from the magistrates court late.
“Mnangagwa listened to her explanation and concluded that her actions were above board. He also said as a lawyer he respected the independence of the judiciary and the judge was excused.”
Muremba, who was appointed judge by former President Robert Mugabe in 2013, used the next few days to mull over her next step, before deciding on Monday that she wants no further part in the case.
Revelations that a judge was summoned by the president to discuss an ongoing case will raise fresh alarm in legal circles as it appears to prove repeated claims of judicial interference by Zanu PF elites.
Veteran lawyer David Coltart said it was highly unusual for a judge to recuse him or herself after hearing a matter.
“I am shocked by this,” Coltart wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “If the judge had personal reasons why she could not deal with the matter that should have been disclosed at the hearing itself and she should have recused herself then.
“An accused person, who has been denied bail to date, now has to spend further time in custody whilst a new judge is allocated to the case. If new reasons why the judge cannot deal with the matter have arisen since she first heard the matter, then those need to be disclosed to the accused’s counsel. Anything else is the antithesis of justice.”
Neville Mutsvangwa was arrested on May 8 accused of illegally trading foreign currency and money laundering with the effect of undermining the country’s new currency, Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG). His mother protested his innocence and claimed his arrest was “politically motivated.”
His father Chris Mutsvangwa, the Zanu PF spokesman, told journalists earlier Monday that they would let justice take its course.
“We are dealing with a matter that’s before the courts, let justice take its course,” Mutsvangwa said. “But as parents we’re going through extreme difficulties but with the fortitude of both the mother and father who’re products of the revolution we have the stamina to bear it all.”
