Magistrate Sacked For Tampering With Ruling
A Mutoko-based magistrate, Jairus Mutseyekwa, was recently sacked by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) for misconduct.
Mutseyekwa allegedly changed a judgement in favour of an accused person who had greased his hands.
The development was confirmed by JSC deputy secretary for legal affairs Faith Mushure in a letter dated September 8, addressed to the complainant, Mathias Madziwanzira’s lawyer Gama and Partners.
In the letter, Mushure revealed that the JSC had conducted its own investigations and found out that Mutseyekwa had doctored his ruling after reading out the original version in court.
On July 2, Madzivanzira’s lawyers had written a letter of complaint to the JSC, arguing that Mutseyekwa produced a handwritten judgment which he later edited in favour of Matuso. The lawyers wrote:
The honourable magistrate issued a handwritten judgment. To our utter dismay, the honourable materially altered the judgment after reading it in court and delivering it to the parties.
The appeal was noted on March 27, 2020, the same day on which the original judgment was handed down.
We secured a copy of the handwritten judgment from the clerk of the court on the same day. Upon receiving our client’s appeal, the honourable magistrate doctored his judgment to deflect the course of justice.
