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Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

18 May

1. Regarding the constitutional matter, I fear people are missing the forest for the trees. I have said that we have a constitutional crisis & it emanates from both amendments. It is that a Real Madrid or Barca player cannot choose the referee for El Classico. Let me explain.

2. All the judges of the superior courts are parties to the proceedings. They cannot properly sit as referees in a matter in which they are involved & they have an interest. In short, they are all conflicted. This is the forest. All the other technicalities converge here.

3. Now, some may argue that a special panel can be chosen to do it. Fine. But someone has to choose that panel. That cannot be done by players in the game because they have an interest. The JSC unnecessarily dragged itself into the matter when it could have stayed neutral.

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Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

18 May

1. 34 years ago, Zimbabwe’s first democratic Constitution was drastically amended via the infamous Amendment No. 7. It introduced the Executive Presidency dumping the Westminster model. I was in Grade 7, barely aware of what was happening. Zvaitonzi Long Live President RG Mugabe!

2. It was only when I was in law school 7 years later that I began to fully appreciate what it meant. Back then, debates were in newspapers & magazines like Moto & Parade often weeks or months after the event. It took a while to build constitutional consciousness.

3. Today, we have multiple spaces where debate is taking place, people getting views from different voices as events happen. This is not a bad thing. On the contrary, it is healthy for society to be exposed to multiple views; to be part of the discourse. It should be celebrated.

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Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

12 May

@JSCZim

1. Each step they take defines the CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS. The @JSCZim wants to be involved because in its mistaken view the judges cited in the lawsuit are its “employees”. It forgets that on that reasoning the judges presiding over the dispute also qualify as its “employees”.

https://twitter.com/shepiek/status/1392357614097510407

@JSCZim

2. This leaves the applicants facing an opponent that purports to be the employer of the presiding judges! The @JSCZim wants to have its cake and eat it at the same time. It wants to represent judges who are being sued while distancing itself from judges presiding over the case!

@JSCZim

3. The @JSCZim cannot be both things at the same time. It could have applied for joinder on other grounds, such as that it is required to defend judicial independence & the constitution, in which it would be challenging the illegal amendment, not defending it.

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Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

11 May

1. Left is the late former Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku. On the right is his successor Chief Justice Luke Malaba. Months before CJ Chidyausiku reached his 70th birthday he started the process of choosing his successor. 4 days before he is 70, CJ Malaba has no successor.

2. In fact, everything points to CJ Malaba succeeding himself. This is ironic. CJ Malaba was the beneficiary of CJ Chidyausiku’s respect of constitutional limits to his judicial term. He had his faults but on this occasion, he did what a professional judge & leader would do.

3. 4 years later, it’s CJ Malaba’s turn to give way to a fellow judge. There are there, judges awaiting their turn. But, it seems, he doesn’t want to go. Zimbabwe has had the misfortune of leaders who don’t want to give up power. But you would have thought judges were different

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Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

8 May

1. Chimbetu was a musical genius & this song is one of his absolute beauties. I would love to hear from fellow Dendera aficionados what he meant. For me it’s a lament over the poverty and great inequalities in our society. Let me explain:

2. He says urombo huri munyika, ndaona mbudzi ichikuya mamera (there’s poverty in the land but I saw a goat grinding malt). A goat doesn’t normally grind malt. It eats it. If it’s grinding malt it’s because it has too much of it. Metaphor for the rich playing around with wealth.

3. The wealthy spend & play around with wealth while the rest are wallowing in poverty. He says if I had money, you would pray at my altar: it’s a mockery of those who have wealth & make everyone jump. Chimbetu’s message was powerful. What’s your interpretation?

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Alex T Magaisa 🇿🇼

@Wamagaisa

2 May

1. Clash of generations: there’s a generation that remembers a Zimbabwe of high standards; a country that worked & had promise. There’s a generation of young adults with no such memory. Their universe was shaped by falling standards; a Zimbabwe that doesn’t work; without promise

2. One generation remembers a Zimbabwe where buses had a time-table & ran on time; cities where running water & electricity were the norm; a Zimbabwe where the milkman left milk bottles at the gate & the postman delivered letters in the box & the Zimbabwe Dollar was proper money.

3. For the other generation, queuing for water at the borehole is normal. For the bucket generation, the bathtub & shower are exceptions. Mushikashika. Kungwavhangwavha. Potholed roads. Dark streets. It’s the norm. It came into a world without things that others take for granted

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