MDC Alliance Vice President, Professor Welshman Ncube, says a large part of the political problems bedevilling Zimbabwe is caused by an incompetent judiciary that has propped up wishes of the military state instead of protecting the citizenry.
His sentiments come as the MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa has been thrust into a battle for political control with a rival formation led by Douglas Mwonzora, which wants to replace it.
Prof Ncube claimed the judiciary awarded Mwonzora’s MDC-T with political power yet the party was a state project that had nothing to do with the people’s interests.
“A large part of Zimbabwe’s problems today, I regret to say, are because we have a judiciary that has abandoned its responsibility,” he said in an interview with CITE on the Breakfast Club, Monday.
“The attempted capture of the opposition by the state is a fault that lies squarely in the doors of the judiciary.”
Prof Ncube did not mince his words saying the latest developments in opposition politics were aided by the judiciary.
“This nonsense about Mwonzora given our money and much of this nonsense about a party that did not contest an election, whose name is not on the ballot paper yet is given our MPs and allowed to recall our MPs – all of that nonsense is the fault of the judiciary in this country,” he said.
Prof Ncube, a constitutional law expert noted that if Zimbabwe had a judiciary that properly applied the law and pursued justice there would be no political chaos in the country.
“We will not be having all of this nonsense that is happening right now because no one will even attempt it because the law is very clear. The courts will pronounce clearly but because now anything goes, we witness all this nonsense that is taking place. So at the door of the judiciary lies much of the responsibility that is happening in this country,” Prof Ncube decried.
Prof Ncube also noted that a strong judiciary was needed for democracy to thrive and used Zambia as a lesson where the northern country’s governance systems were in order.
He also said he was happy that the new Zambian president, Hakainde Hichilema, had expressed commitment to continue promoting democracy, which was what the SADC region needed.
“President HH has been consistent about who his friends are. We worked together in the opposition in the region. But others who we had worked with in the past when they received state power they suddenly became part of the establishment instead of advancing a different trajectory in SADC,” lamented the MDC Alliance vice president.
Prof Ncube underscored that SADC needed democratic governments and the body itself should strive to support democracy.
“We need a SADC that is on the side of the people, a SADC that does everything in its power to make sure that in each and everyone of member countries, the will of the people prevails. We’ve not been having that yet we’ve had sufficient changes in government to have sufficient balance of power in favour of democracy in the region, were it not that some of the leaders in the opposition, once in power, begin to mimic the horrible habits of those that they opposed yesterday,” he lamented.
