Blue duikers and landmark rulings
Luke Malaba
On a deeply shaded road under a low, cloudy sky, the mist kept reaching down and cloaking the giant trees in Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands. This is the Zimbabwe of huge kopjes and towering mountains, of clear cold rivers, stunning scenery and spectacular waterfalls. It was a bad road, progress was very slow, navigating the red earth through potholes and around gullies, bumping over roots and rocks and veering away from eroded edges. Suddenly there was movement in the dense undergrowth, leaves quivered, grass stirred, petals and seed heads glistening with beads of moisture dripped at the disturbance. And then there it was, a small, dark animal with a blue/grey sheen, not even as tall as my knee, the beautiful Blue Duiker stepped out into the road. For a moment I drew in my breath to watch this rare sight but then it was gone as quickly as it had come, instantly invisible as it slipped away into the thick bush. The wonderful and unexpect
Luke Malaba
HARARE – The term of office of Zimbabwe’s Chief Justice Luke Malaba ended when he turned 70 on midnight Saturday, three High Court judges ruled in a seismic judgement.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF party rushed constitutional amendments through parliament which allowed him to extend the term of office of senior judges of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court by a further five years past retirement age.
Justices Happias Zhou, Edith Mushore and Helena Charehwa – in a judgement hailed as a victory for constitutionalism – on Saturday ruled that all incumbent judges of the senior courts could not benefit from an amendment to the constitution extending their term limits past retirement age.