IN governance parlance, the media profession is often referred to as the Fourth Estate, befittingly coming after the main three branches of the State, namely the Executive, Judiciary and Legislature.
As media, we harbour no intention to belittle the courts; not at all.
But there has been a tendency, at least by the lower courts, to leave until too late the cases of deserving bail candidates.
In fact, everybody is deemed innocent until they are proven guilty.
From Job Sikhala to Hopewell Chin’ono, Gift Karanda to Raphinos Mufandauya, Henrietta Rushwaya to Stephen Cherai, the list is endless, would all have to endure inhuman and degrading treatment before being finally granted bail at the High Court.
As media, we ask the question: For whose interest is the denial of bail to such deserving applicants as those mentioned above supposed to be?
In fact, the case of Rushwaya could easily make for the case of the year.
First, in a dramatic turn, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has reportedly been a victim of name dropping, allegedly by persons said to represent Rushwaya.
It would be interesting to hear what Rushwaya and her co-accused would have to say in an open court.
Second, the finding of the gold is not in factual dispute but only the clearance of her name, including reclamation of her four gold bars.
After all, Rushwaya has already said she picked the wrong bag off to Dubai, taking the one with the gold bars in place of the other, and we have absolutely no reason to doubt her.
Lastly, Rushwaya and her other co-accused have expressed a willingness to accept tougher bail conditions than those originally proposed while awaiting trial on charges of attempting to smuggle gold to Dubai.
Through her lawyer, Tapson Dzvetero, Rushwaya said she was prepared to deposit $90 000, surrender title deeds to one of her properties as surety and report every Friday at Rhodesville Police Station.
We don’t think there is anything more Rushwaya could have conceded.
Joshua Chirambwi, one of the lawyers representing Rushwaya’s co-accused, said there was no reason why accused persons should remain infinitely incarcerated.
“The accused should obviously not remain infinitely incarcerated and not be granted bail. In fact, there is a worrying trend in which lower courts tend to detain bail candidates for far much longer than appropriate,” Chirambwi said.
