THE symbol of justice across the world is a lady carrying scales, a sword and sometimes a blindfold. Today, many countries around the world recognise Lady Justice as a symbol for their courts.
Lady Justice’s sword shows authority, including the power to punish injustice, and impartiality. It also implies being able to cut through obstacles to get to the facts of a case.
The same symbol is found across all our courts in Zimbabwe, ostensibly, as a sign that authorities in Zimbabwe want justice for its entire people.
But as we head towards crucial general elections in either July or August, Zimbabwean courts are showing us a different version of justice, one that is perverted to serve certain individuals and achieve certain ends.
And to reach those ends, we know that President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his colleagues in Zanu PF will stop at nothing to achieve their goal.
We remember his infamous words in April 2020: “We are the majority, we are the people, we are the government, we are the army, we are the air force, we are the police, we are everything you can think of!”
So, we know they will do anything to protect their power base, the latest being the obvious rape of Lady Justice.
We have all witnessed how our courts have become Zanu PF’s latest weapon, not only against opposition leaders and their supporters, but against anyone seen as a threat to its hegemony.
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In fact, all dissenting voices in Zimbabwe or any place or country are not safe when Lady Justice has fallen.
It will go down in history that the ruling Zanu PF has perverted justice, and used the courts to keep Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC)’s Zengeza West legislator Job Sikhala in prison for 11 months without trial.
Sikhala was convicted on a charge of obstructing the course of justice and was fined US$600 or alternatively six months in prison, becoming the third opposition figure to be convicted in less than a month.
Last week, Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume was given a four-year jail sentence for inciting violence ahead of planned protests against corruption and poverty in the country in July 2020.
A quarter of that sentence was suspended on condition.
In April, CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere was fined US$500 for communicating falsehoods considered prejudicial to the State.
The convictions came at a time when the ruling Zanu PF party is pushing for enactment of the heavily criticised Electoral Act Amendment Bill, which seeks to disqualify aspiring candidates with criminal records.
A pattern is emerging, and another senior opposition figure’s political career is on the line using the courts who are discrediting themselves on the whims of the powerful.
Sikhala and several opposition leaders including any dissenting voices are facing several charges linked to their political activities.
With Lady Justice down and out, there is no stopping the weaponisation of the law against political opponents of the ruling party.
Will Zanu PF ever stop attacking all those who have divergent views to its own?
Zimbabwe needs to be free from this perverted justice system and those who are raping Lady Justice in broad daylight without shame.
