Zimpapers Logo

Advocate Ray Goba

Auxilia Katongomara, Chronicle Reporter
FORMER Prosecutor-General, Advocate Ray Goba, has apologised to President Mnangagwa for the offence he committed in Namibia and hopes to continue practising as a legal practitioner outside the public service.

Adv Goba was declared a prohibited immigrant while working in Namibia as Deputy Prosecutor-General and legal services director in 2011 in case number A118/2011 .

He, however, travelled to that country when he was Zimbabwe’s PG without Cabinet authority, leading to his suspension and subsequent resignation.

President Mnangagwa suspended Adv Goba last month and he was due to appear before a tribunal to ascertain whether he was still fit to continue as the country’s top prosecutor.

In his resignation letter tendered on Wednesday, Adv Goba begged to be pardoned.

“I hope as my President you shall find something good that I did and pardon me for what had happened in that foreign land so I may continue my career in Zimbabwe outside public service.  It would be unfair that I be doubly punished in my own country of birth and foreign land especially so many years after the offence which stemmed from nothing apart from a pull over on a public road,” reads his letter.

He said the offence which occurred in Namibia still haunts him.

“I sincerely regret the incident which has brought me nothing but pain since it occurred. It has been abused both as a measurement of success and a weapon of character.

‘Your Excellency, I wish to thank you wholeheartedly for supporting my professional development since 1980. I have no words to say apart from what I have said. I am of the opinion that as you start your new term you be allowed to do so without the controversy of my unfortunate past. I trust you will find a suitable replacement,” he said.

“In the premises, I wish to tender as I hereby do, my resignation with immediate effect. I shall of course miss all my colleagues and handling criminal procedures, a career which I painstakingly trained in over many years hoping to one day serve my country.  When you called I answered, but it was not to be. I have done my part under very difficult circumstances over the last two years. I am convinced that the past should never be allowed to retard the future.”

Adv Goba is alleged to have on more than one occasion travelled out of Zimbabwe to Namibia without obtaining the necessary Government approval.

The former top prosecutor was also alleged to have violated his constitutional obligation by refusing to prosecute corruption related cases initiated by investigating agencies.

He is alleged to have given various excuses for failing to prosecute the cases. Among the high profile corruption cases Advocate Goba was alleged to have refused to prosecute is that of former Higher Education Deputy Minister, Godfrey Gandawa and that of former Home Affairs and Finance Minister, Ignatius Chombo.—@AuxiliaK