Source: Harare man who promoted himself to Deputy Chief Justice gets two years behind bars – herald
Martin Rashai’s ambitious but brief stint as Zimbabwe’s second most senior judge has now ended with a two-year prison sentence after he was convicted of impersonating a peace officer.FOR reasons best known to himself, a 23-year-old Harare man apparently looked at the country’s judicial hierarchy and decided that becoming Deputy Chief Justice Paddington Garwe was a perfectly reasonable career move.
Martin Rashai’s ambitious but brief stint as Zimbabwe’s second most senior judge has now ended with a two-year prison sentence after he was convicted of impersonating a peace officer.
Rashai’s downfall began when he allegedly used a mobile number registered in his own name to masquerade as Deputy Chief Justice Garwe and start quizzing Judicial Service Commission (JSC) human resources officials about recruitment interviews and vacant posts.
On May 5 this year, JSC deputy head of human resources Tafadzwa Sekeni and human resources officer Abigail Ziti received WhatsApp messages from a number identifying its owner as the Deputy Chief Justice.
The “Deputy Chief Justice” wanted to know when interviews for information technology (IT) officer positions would be conducted and also showed a surprising interest in a transport officer vacancy at the Kwekwe Magistrates’ Court.
Now, judges are known for many things, but personally chasing up junior staff vacancies through WhatsApp messages is not usually one of them. The unusual inquiries immediately raised eyebrows. The officials reportedly found it odd that a Constitutional Court judge would be so invested in the fate of an IT officer recruitment exercise and a transport officer post.
Undeterred, the mystery jurist continued the conversation. Seeking to verify who she was dealing with, Ms Ziti asked where he was stationed. The response came back: the Constitutional Court. Believing she was communicating with the Deputy Chief Justice, she provided some of the information requested.
But the cracks soon began to show.
When Ms Ziti attempted to call the number, it could not be reached. A subsequent WhatsApp call also went unanswered, with the sender insisting that all communication remain via text message. Still suspicious, she asked directly whether she was indeed chatting with Deputy Chief Justice Garwe.
The answer was an emphatic yes.
Further checks, however, revealed that no discussions about the vacancies had taken place and that the number being used did not match any of the Deputy Chief Justice’s official contact details on JSC records.
By May 7, it emerged that Mr Sekeni had also been contacted through the same number.
Internal inquiries quickly established that somebody, somewhere, had apparently decided to promote himself from ordinary job seeker to Deputy Chief Justice without first consulting the Constitution. The matter was reported to JSC Deputy Secretary Dr Kumbirai Katsande before being handed over to the police.
Investigators from CID Harare later discovered that Rashai had previously applied for employment with the JSC. Police obtained a warrant compelling NetOne to release subscriber information linked to the number allegedly used in the scheme. The records confirmed the number belonged to Rashai himself.
Detectives then tracked him down in Hurungwe and arrested him.
Armed with his contact details and residential information, detectives tracked him down in Hurungwe and arrested him.
And so ended a remarkable judicial career that lasted only a few WhatsApp messages, generated no judgements, created no legal precedents and culminated in a two-year prison sentence.
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