Ray Nkosi | Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa has lost in his bid to stop the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) from rolling out a process to find Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku’s successor.

A group of lawyers argued that the veteran politician’s interventions violated the Constitution. Below is a statement by Zimbabwe Lawyers For Rights;

“The Constitution has won,”-ZLHR board chairperson Beatrice Mtetwa after the Sepreme Court’s ruling issued on Monday 13 February 2016 in which Judges of Appeal (JA) Ben Hlatshwayo, JA Bharat Patel and JA Vernanda Ziyambi allowed the Judicial Service Commission’s appeal against the High Court interdict which barred the constitutional body from conducting interviews to choose a successor for Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, who retires at the end of February.

Earlier on, the Supreme Court had granted an order admitting Mtetwa, who was represented by Advocate Tererai Mafukidze, as a friend of the court. ZLHR senior members among them Tendai Biti and Charles Kamba, who serves on the ZLHR board were in attendance following court proceedings. Besides Mtetwa, the Supreme Court also admitted the Law Society of Zimbabwe and Abammeli Bamalungelo Abantu – Network of Human Rights Lawyers ( Abammeli) as friends of the court. Picture Credit: Kumbirai Mafunda