Court Reporter

Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC)’s interim vice-national chairman Job Sikhala’s request to have his court case live-streamed was dismissed by Harare regional magistrate Mrs Marehwanazvo Gofa following acts of sabotage by his legal team.

An activist and lawyer Tari Musona has attributed the dismissal of Sikhala’s application to school boy errors by Sikhala’s lawyers.

“It is unbelievable that a legal counsel would fail to meet the court deadline for a case whose applicant is more than willing to get back to his family.

“The only thing that makes sense to me is that there was a deliberate delay by Sikhala’s representative to prolong his stay in remand. The million dollar question is who could have influenced such a tactic?” asked Musona.

Following Sikhala’s application to have his case on 3 January 2023, the defence was asked to replicate by filing written submissions on 6 January 2023. The matter was then postponed to 9 January 2023 at 11:15 hours for ruling. Parties were also ordered to adhere to the agreed submission dates and times. The state complied and filed their response as agreed however the defence did not meet agreed deadlines. The defence only made attempts to file its replication only after court was about to give its ruling. It was against this background that a waiver to submit was passed and ruling to dismiss the case was also passed.

This school boy error will bring to the fore questions of whether CCC leader Nelson Chamisa wants to see Sikhala leave remand.

Sikhala has previously made claims from Chikurubi Maximum Prison that his allies have abandoned him and that they also attempted to kill him by giving him poisoned food. Stunts such as the deliberate sabotage to earn Sikhala’s freedom have brought Zimbabweans up to speed on who Sikhala’s enemies really are.