By A Correspondent | ZimEye | MP, Job Sikhala on Thursday applied for recusal of the magistrate who is currently trying him.

Speaking outside the Magistrates Court, Job Sikhala’s lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa said the sitting magistrate, Nduna has created his own facts which are the basis of the denial of bail.

She said, as ZimEye transribes below : I think those of you who were in court heard Mr Bamu’s application for recusal. We expected that we would be in the provincial Court because this is a provincial case which a provincial magistrate can deal with. If they deemed it regional, we expected it go to the remand region l Court which is Court 14.

But surprisingly it was taken to court 16 which is a trial court and Mr Nduna, magistrate Nduna is sitting in that court, and some of you will be aware that mag Nduna previously denied Hon Sikhala bail on a basis that had not been relied upon by the state factually in its form 242. In short he made up his own facts in denying him bail. In addition, he denied him bail on the basis that he has a propensity towards committing offences because he has been arrested 65 times in a short space of time. Firstly, this 65 times related to a 21 year period, so to characterise 21 year as short, was again his own creation. But more importantly he then relied on propensity based on arrest not conviction. As you all know.

But more importantly he then relied on propensity based on arrest not conviction. As you all know political leaders get arrested many many times. They never get tried. And you heard me say Bamu addressed the court saying the state is very quick to arrest and deny bail but very slow to provide a trial date. It is a misdirection to say because the police come to arrest you, whether rightly or wrongly, that shows a propensity when you have not been convicted. So we are saying we fear that you will do the same, we are asking why certain cases that have nothing whatsoever to do with Anti Corruption are taken to Corruption Courts. We are also saying, anti corruption court judicial officers are known to denying bail to certain types of accused persons who include opposition politicians, who include citivl society activists and who include generally those who are seen as a nuisance by the establishment, so naturally, we fear that even before we talk about bail, or whatever other application we will make, it will fall on deaf ears because the magistrate has a predisposition to deny people like Sikhala bail, and we are not saying this from the air, we are sayjng he has done it before. So that basically is where we are. Thank you