Zimbabwe: High Court Overturns Chief Murinye’s Summons Against Riverton Academy Owner, Rules Traditional Leader Cannot Judge His Own Dispute

The High Court has dealt a blow to traditional leader Chief Murinye, setting aside a summons he issued against a private school operator and ruling that he could not preside over a case in which he was personally aggrieved.

Justice Christopher Dube-Banda ruled in favour of Philimon Mutangiri, the head and responsible authority of Riverton Academy Extension, after finding that Chief Murinye had abused court processes by summoning him to a community court while related litigation was already pending before the High Court.

The court also declared invalid proceedings conducted by the chief after he went ahead with the hearing despite knowing the High Court application challenging the summons had already been filed.

The respondents were Chief Murinye, sued both in his official capacity as a traditional leader appointed under the Traditional Leaders Act and personally as Ephias Munodawafa, the incumbent chief, as well as the Minister of Local Government and Public Works, who administers the Traditional Leaders Act. The minister did not oppose the application.

The judge found that the chief had sought to use his community court to determine issues already before the High Court.

“My view is that the Chief seeks, by the summons he issued, to undercut and undermine the process in HCMSC 14/26, and such cannot be countenanced by this court. In seeking to determine, in his community court, the very issue that is pending determination in this court, the Chief acted outside the requirements of the law,” the judge ruled.

The dispute stems from the construction of Riverton Academy Extension in Murinye/Machingura villages in Masvingo Province.

At the beginning of the 2026 school term, Chief Murinye allegedly blocked parents from taking their children to the school, arguing that he had not been consulted before it was built.

Mutangiri successfully obtained a provisional High Court order barring the chief from blocking access to the school or interfering with its operations.

After that ruling, the chief summoned Mutangiri to appear before his community court on allegations that the school had been built on sacred land and that he had uttered words undermining the chief’s authority.

Mutangiri challenged the summons, arguing it duplicated issues already before the High Court and was fundamentally unfair because the chief was both the complainant and the judicial officer.

The judge agreed.

“In terms of section 69(2) of the Constitution, the applicant has a right to a fair hearing before an impartial court. In casu, the Chief is the complainant and judicial officer in the same matter,” the judge said.

“The nemo judex in sua causa principle applies with force in this case; no one is permitted to be adjudicator in his own case.”

The judge rejected Chief Murinye’s argument that customary law entitled him to hear the dispute himself, saying customary law remained subject to constitutional guarantees of a fair trial.

“Customary law must give way to the constitutional values of a fair trial before an independent and impartial court,” the judgment reads.

The court further criticised the chief for proceeding with the community court hearing and granting a default judgment after he had already been served with the High Court application.

“Proceeding with the matter notwithstanding that an application with a bearing on the matter is pending finalisation before this court… suggests that the intention would be to render the process before this court nugatory,” Justice Dube-Banda ruled.

Although the court described the chief’s conduct as “rather disconcerting”, it declined to award punitive legal costs sought by Mutangiri.

The judge instead ordered Chief Murinye to pay costs on the ordinary party-and-party scale, saying the conduct had not crossed the threshold for attorney-and-client costs.

The High Court ultimately set aside the summons issued on 1 February 2026, nullified all proceedings conducted before the chief pursuant to that summons and ordered Chief Murinye to pay the costs of the application.

By New Zimbabwe.