Zimpapers Logo

The late Justice Wilson Sandura

Daniel Nemukuyu Harare Bureau
FORMER Supreme Court judge Justice Wilson Sandura has died. The distinguished jurist died at a private hospital in Harare yesterday aged 74. Justice Sandura died from injuries he sustained in a car accident that occurred on February 28 this year near his rural home in Madziva.

His wife, Caroline, yesterday said the judge was taken to Mt Darwin Hospital before being referred to Shashi Hospital in Bindura following the accident. He was subsequently transferred to the Avenues Clinic, where he was admitted up to his death yesterday.

“We all thought he was improving, but we were surprised to hear of his collapse around 1230PM. The doctors tried their best but he finally passed away,” she said.

Justice Sandura loyally served as a judge for nearly 30 years before his retirement in 2011.

He would be remembered as a forthright and fearless judge, who served his country with a constant mind both in good and turbulent times.

The top judge had served on the Supreme Court since 1998. He was a High Court judge between 1983 and 1997 and was Judge President from 1984.

In 1989 Justice Sandura became a household name in Zimbabwe after presiding over the Sandura commission that claimed the political careers of several ministers following a vehicle scandal, commonly referred to as the Willowgate scandal.

For more than seven weeks, the Sandura commission called 72 witnesses, including six Cabinet ministers, two deputy ministers, three members of Parliament, two senior army officers and 40 directors and managers of private companies.

During the hearings some Cabinet ministers threatened commissioners, but Justice Sandura stood his ground and threatened two of them with arrest.