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Striking magistrates leave scores stranded
Vusumuzi Sifile and Nqobani Ndlovu, The Standard (Zimbabwe)
November 18, 2007

CLEMENTS Ncube is a Zimbabwean working in Gaborone. Two weeks ago, he travelled to Bulawayo to wed his girlfriend, Soneni Moyo.

He desperately needed a marriage certificate for his wife to join him in Botswana.

The wedding was to be held at the Tredgold Magistrates' Court. Ncube had hired an 18-seater minibus to bring friends and relatives from Botswana.

When Ncube finally arrived in Bulawayo he found the magistrates were on strike and the wedding ceremony at Tredgold could not take place. They cancelled everything.

"This is unfair," he said.

This is an example of how, when justice decides to go on strike, many things go awry.

Among the affected are prisoners. Some have remained in jail because there is no one to try them.

The Standard has established that in a number of prisons and holding cells, inmates are exposed to disease outbreaks. Cells are now dangerously overcrowded.

The scarcity of foodstuffs on the formal market means feeding remand prisoners is no longer the routine. Suppliers complain their debts are not being settled on time or at all - so they won't deal with the prisons.

In Bulawayo, the situation at the Central Police Station was described by an officer as "just terrible".

"There is a risk of a disease outbreak, as there is a water and food shortage," he said.

Magistrates went on strike two weeks ago demanding a 150% pay hike. They want their salaries reviewed every three months. They want the same luxury cars as judges.

Enias Mungate, president of the Magistrates' Association of Zimbabwe (MAZ), in a letter to the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, said their salaries and working conditions were "demotivating".

They are demanding a pay hike of about $25 million to over $80 million before allowances.

Protests over low pay and poor working conditions have led to a serious brain drain in the judiciary.

In August, four criminal courts in Bulawayo shut down after magistrates resigned. Remand prisoners remained in prison.

Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena had this comment: "There is nothing we can do but to continue to arrest offenders. But we are not facing a crisis. If the cells are crowded, we could move them to other places."

The parliamentary portfolio committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs last year described the prison situation as "disturbing".

Last week, the committee was told the ministry had exhausted its 2007 budget allocation.

On Thursday, the ministry's acting permanent secretary Chisingaperi Chaitezvi and the chief magistrate Herbert Mandeya, said the Public Service Commission indicated it could only review salaries next year.

The government recently ordered the striking magistrates back to work while their "grievances were being looked into". But the magistrates would not budge.

In some cases, magistrates and prosecutors went away with court keys, locking out police prosecutors, ordered to hear cases by the Ministry of Home Affairs. The police prosecutors were dismissed as "sell-outs" by their striking colleagues.

Police prosecutors were posted to the courts on Tuesday at the request of the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.

In Bulawayo, police prosecutors wrote to Officer Commanding Bulawayo, Senior Assistant Commissioner, Lee Muchemwa, advising him of their predicament after being locked out of the courts.

Under the law, the police cannot strike.

Prosecutors and magistrates earn between $16 million and $26 million respectively, according to sources.

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