ZimEye Feeds!

High Court Closes Down

By George Nyathi

ZIMBABWE’S High Court building this morning resembled a shell that had been long discarded following the closure of the buildings by the ministry of justice, legal and parliamentary affairs due to crippling water shortages.

A ZimEye news crew that visited the justice centre discovered that there was no-one manning the building as it had been locked from outside using big padlocks that hung outside the gates and doors to the centre.

Information at hand shows that the building was shut down on Tuesday after ministry officials expressed fears that there could be a serious cholera outbreak at the courts owing to shortage of running water.

So far, more than 30 people have died due to a cholera outbreak that hit a number of Harare’s high density suburbs, with several hundreds hospitalized.

It still remains to be established why the centre had no water yet all other buildings around it had running water. Authorities fear that the justice institution could have become a victim of an initiative by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) to recover money owed to it due to unpaid water bills running into months.

“All other areas have water and it is just the High Court that has been cut off. Maybe they have not been remitting water service charges to ZINWA and they have had to be cut off, no-one knows, but it is indeed a cause for concern that such a crucial aspect of the justice delivery system could just be cut off from water supplies due to non-payment. Someone slept on duty and they have to be fired for that,” said one senior official.

Several lawyers intending to file court papers for their cases were surprised to find padlocks outside the court buildings as they had not been notified of the impending closure of the courts.

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) castigated the authorities and powers that be in the ministry of justice, legal and parliamentary affairs for the lacklustre approach to the situation at the High Court.

“That such a court, a vehicle for protecting human rights should be closed due to lack of water is a serious undermining of equal protection to litigants, detainees, and even convicted prisoners whose matters are on appeal from lower courts

“ZLHR calls upon the Ministry of Justice Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and relevant authorities to ensure that the High Court of Zimbabwe and indeed all courts in Zimbabwe are given all the necessary tools and essentials to enable them to function properly, timeously and effectively in exercising their judicial authority,” said ZLHR in a statement. shortages.

  Archived Articles -