Angrily reacting to the High Court judgment blocking Chief Justice Luke Malaba's new tenure, Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, President Emmerson Mnangagwa's loyalist, says: "We are now going to poke the enemy in the eye and confront it."
Mnangagwa and his faction are rattled.
Mnangagwa and his faction are rattled.
As The NewsHawks reported earlier today, the court battle is part of renewed power struggles between Mnangagwa and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga.
Mnangagwa's constitutional amendments are about his power consolidation project, but there has been a reaction to his intrigue.
Mnangagwa's constitutional amendments are about his power consolidation project, but there has been a reaction to his intrigue.
"With the greatest of respect, we do not agree with the decision of the Court for so many reasons and for that reason, we have already instructed our lawyers to file an appeal first thing on Monday morning," Ziyambi said.
"We do not understand how the Honourable Justice (Happias) Zhou insisted on proceeding with the matter after we sought his recusal because he is clearly conflicted.
"We are also at a loss as to how the Honourable Judge President of the High Court was excluded from being cited in the litigation which included all Judges of the High Court who have acted in the Supreme and Constitutional Courts.
"We are further alarmed that these proceedings went on through the night up to midnight. This is a typical case of a night court, consisting of night judges and night lawyers.
"This is a typical case of judicial overreach and as government, we are not going to accept that. This is clear violation of the doctrine of separation of powers - the judiciary should know where it ends.
"It is not the big brother of the other two arms of the state which it wants to purport to be. It is just another arm of the state.
"I must also mention and make it very clear that we are aware of multi-lateral and foreign organisations who have poured in a lot of money through the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights to capture various state institutions and to destabilise the government.
"The situation now in this country is that there is a risk of judicial capture where the judiciary has been captured by certain elements both within and outside Zimbabwe who want to destabilise the Second Republic.
"We are also aware of certain members of the opposition, the MDC Alliance, who are being paid monthly allowances for causing turmoil in this country and for being arrested.
"The time may now have come to expose all these malcontents and economic saboteurs who are not sleeping until they bring down the Second Republic. We are now going to poke the enemy in the eye and confront it."
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