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Daniel Nemukuyu Harare Bureau
THE Constitutional Court yesterday removed from the statutes Section 31 (a) (iii) of the Criminal Law Codification Reform Act, which criminalises publication of false statements undermining public confidence in the uniformed forces.The section reads: “Any person who, whether inside or outside Zimbabwe – publishes or communicates to any other person a statement which is wholly or materially false with the intention or realising that there is a real risk or possibility of undermining public confidence in a law enforcement agency, the Prison Service or the Defence Forces of Zimbabwe …, be guilty of publishing or communicating a false statement prejudicial to the state and liable to a fine up to or exceeding level fourteen or imprisonment for a period not exceeding twenty years or both”.

Deputy Chief Justice Luke Malaba made the ruling in the case in which Alpha Media Holdings editor-in-chief Vincent Kahiya and former staffer Constantine Chimakure were challenging their arrest and prosecution on the offence.

“It is the order of the court that Section 31(a) (iii) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 was in contravention of Section 20(1) of the former Constitution and therefore void,” he said.

“The respondent (Attorney General of Zimbabwe) is to pay the costs of the main application as well as the costs relating to the confirmation of this rule nisi.”

Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku and Justices Vernanda Ziyambi and Elizabeth Gwaunza agreed with the judgment.

The court held that the law was not reasonably justifiable in a democratic  society.

In October last year, the court held that the law was in violation of the people’s rights to freedom of expression as enshrined in the Constitution.

The Constitutional Court observed that the section had the effect of breaching people’s rights and invited Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa to justify its existence within a month’s time if he so wished.

The ruling by the Constitutional Court yesterday followed an appeal by Chimakure and Kahiya who had been charged under the Criminal Code’s Section 31 for allegedly publishing or communicating a false statement prejudicial to the state.