Kwa hiyo ndiyomaana mkaona mlete mashtaka mepesi ya kutunga mkajua upande wa utetezi utakua hauna mawakili wakuwa-challange nyie wabambika kesi?
Tutegemee
mfumo wa jinai haki (criminal justice system) usiwe kama ule wa makaburu wa Afrika ya Kusini kabla ya ubaguzi kuisha, hapa Tanzania kuna ubaguzi na uonevu wa CCM dhidi ya waTanzania wengine mfano 'kukomoana' jinsi mashtaka dhidi ya Mbowe na wenzie walivyotayarishwa na mwenendo wa ofisi ya Mashtaka na mawakili wa serikali.
Lakini imani yetu ni kuwa mhimili wa Mahakama utatumia mzani wa haki ili kuondoa dhana ya kukomoana na haki kupatikana.
Historia ya
mfumo jinai haki (criminal justice system) Alivyouona Nelson Mandela na wapinga ubaguzi wengine wasiojali rangi, walitiliia mashaka kama haki itatendeka :
HISTORIA YA AFRIKA YA KUSINI ENZI ZA UBAGUZI
Nelson Mandela International Day
18 July
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© UN Photo/John Isaac
On Freedom
"Black Man in a White Court"
Nelson Mandela's First Court Statement - 1962
- Extracts from the court record of the trial of Mandela held in the Old Synagogue court, Pretoria, from 15 October to 7 November 1962. Mandela was accused on two counts, that of inciting persons to strike illegally (during the 1961 stay-at-home) and that of leaving the country without a valid passport. He conducted his own defence.
MANDELA:
Your Worship, before I plead to the charge, there are one or two points I would like to raise.
Firstly, Your Worship will recall that this matter was postponed last Monday at my request until today, to enable Counsel to make the arrangements to be available here today. Although Counsel is now available, after consultation with him and my attorneys, I have elected to conduct my own defence. Some time during the progress of these proceedings, I hope to be able to indicate that this case is a trial of the aspirations of the African people, and because of that I thought it proper to conduct my own defence. Nevertheless, I have decided to retain the services of Counsel, who will be here throughout these proceedings, and I also would like my attorney to be available in the course of these proceedings as well, but subject to that I will conduct my own defence.
The second point I would like to raise is an application which is addressed to Your Worship. Now at the outset, I want to make it perfectly clear that the remarks I am going to make are not addressed to Your Worship in his personal capacity, nor are they intended to reflect upon the integrity of the court. I hold Your Worship in high esteem and I do not for one single moment doubt your sense of fairness and justice. I must also mention that nothing I am going to raise in this application is intended to reflect against the Prosecutor in his personal capacity.
The point I wish to raise in my argument is based not on personal considerations, but on important questions that go beyond the scope of this present trial. I might also mention that in the course of this application I am frequently going to refer to the white man and the white people. I want at once to make it clear that I am no racialist, and I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or from a white man. The terminology that I am going to employ will be compelled on me by the nature of the application I am making.
I want to apply for Your Worship's recusal from this case. I challenge the right of this court to hear my case on two grounds.
Firstly, I challenge it because I fear that I will not be given a fair and proper trial. Secondly, I consider myself neither legally nor morally bound to obey laws made by a parliament in which I have no representation.
In a political trial such as this one, which involves a clash of the aspirations of the African people and those of whites, the country's courts, as presently constituted, cannot be impartial and fair.
In such cases, whites are interested parties. To have a white judicial officer presiding, however high his esteem, and however strong his sense of fairness and justice, is to make whites judges in their own case.
It is improper and against the elementary principles of justice to entrust whites with cases involving the denial by them of basic human rights to the African people.
What sort of justice is this that enables the aggrieved to sit in judgement over those against whom they have laid a charge?
A judiciary controlled entirely by whites and enforcing laws enacted by a white parliament in which Africans have no representation - laws which in most cases are passed in the face of unanimous opposition from Africans -
MAGISTRATE:
I am wondering whether I shouldn't interfere with you at this stage, Mr Mandela. Aren't we going beyond the scope of the proceedings? After all is said and done, there is only one court today and that is the White Man's court. There is no other court. What purpose does it serve you to make an application when there is only one court, as you know yourself. What court do you wish to be tried by?
MANDELA:
Well, Your Worship, firstly I would like Your Worship to bear in mind that in a series of cases our courts have laid it down that the right of a litigant to ask for a recusal of a judicial officer is an extremely important right, which must be given full protection by the court, as long as that right is exercised honestly. Now I honestly have apprehensions, as I am going to demonstrate just now, that this unfair discrimination throughout my life has been responsible for very grave injustices, and I am going to contend that that race discrimination which outside this court has been responsible for all my troubles, I fear in this court is going to do me the same injustice. Now Your Worship may disagree with that, but Your Worship is perfectly entitled, in fact, obliged to listen to me and because of that I feel that Your Worship-
MAGISTRATE:
I would like to listen, but I would like you to give me the grounds for your application for me to recuse myself.
MANDELA:
Well, these are the grounds, I am developing them, sir. If Your Worship will give me time -
MAGISTRATE:
I don't wish to go out of the scope of the proceedings
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Nelson Mandela's First Court Statement - 1962
Nelson Mandela was arrested on several occasions and stood trial four times. He spent over 27 years in prison. Our archivists and researchers have assembled dates and locations of transfers and time spent in confinement.