FULL TEXT: Any law inconsistent with the new Constitution is automatically invalid, and invalid from the commencement of the Constitution in 2013. A person who has been arrested & who appears in court for the first time is entitled to their immediate release with or without conditions.

The right of an accused person to be released with or without conditions sets in upon their arraignment before a court. They must be released. That’s why, in terms of the procedure brought by the new 2013 Constitution, an accused person has no obligation to apply for bail.

The accused person simply has to stand up in court & indicate their desire to be admitted to bail. It is for the State to either consent or oppose bail. The State must place before the court the exceptional reasons that justify the continued detention of the accused person.

So, upon the arraignment of an accused person, that person must be admitted to bail, with or without conditions. This does not overlook that the Constitution anticipates that there may be exceptional cases, which may necessitate the continued detention of an accused person.

Going by the stare decisis doctrine, there’s no need for an order of the ConCourt to declare the invalidity of the part in s32 of the Criminal Procedure & Evidence Act providing for the detention of an accused person for 21 days, without bail. That’s an invalid law. Simple!

I’m disappointed with Prof Madhuku because he must know that the State had no legitimate or lawful reason to issue a certificate for Mupfumira’s continued detention for 21 days, without bail. The Prosecutor General acted ultra vires and the Magistrate misdirected himself.

By issuing a detention certificate that smacks of the Rhodesian State of Emergency & #Gukurahundi, the State acted unlawfully & unconstitutionally. The rights of an accused person have been needlessly trampled upon to necessitate an urgent review to set aside the opprobrium!

If the State had legitimate reasons to deny Mupfumira bail, it should have simply presented them for the court to decide. But to issue a jungle-certificate that bars her from applying for bail for 21 days is crude, unconstitutional & against principles of natural justice!