Judgment No. CCZ 3/2015 2
Criminal Appeal No. CCZ 227/11
filed on his behalf before the Magistrates Court on 27 June 2011, he was detained but
later released and then arrested again in November 2007. At the end of 2008 he was
taken off remand because the State was not ready to proceed. Following his further arrest
in May 2011, he was summoned to appear in court on 20 June 2011, when he gave notice
of his intention to apply for the matter to be referred to the Supreme Court in terms of
s 24(2) of the former Constitution. The matter was then so referred by the Magistrates
Court sitting at Harare on 8 July 2011.
It is averred on behalf of the applicant that the inordinate delay of 6 years
in bringing the matter to trial was due to the State’s lack of preparedness. It is also
averred that he has been prejudiced by the passage of time, the inflation of the Zimbabwe
Dollar and the subsequent changeover to the United States Dollar.
The State opposed the application for referral on the grounds set out in its
response filed before the magistrate on 6 July 2011. It further opposed the request for
permanent stay of proceedings in its heads of argument before this Court. In essence, it is
averred that the matter is not properly before this Court because it consists only of the
submissions filed in the Magistrates Court. There was no affidavit or evidence adduced
in that court, nor was any hearing conducted before it, to enable the magistrate to
determine whether or not the application was frivolous or vexatious. Additionally, no
documentation was attached to the application to support the applicant’s averments as to
what transpired between 2005 and 2011. Consequently, neither the prosecutor nor the
magistrate could test the veracity of the applicant’s allegations. It is further argued for