Academic or professional attainments are not enough on their own.
One has to consider the belief and value systems of a given individual especially if one is entrusted with weighty responsibilities.
Background issues often betray a person once he/ she is entrusted with critical issues. One aptly remarked: “Your tongue can betray you.”
Jesus said a man speaks what is in his heart, the mind. What one does in the dark can inadvertently slip out of the mouth to the disgust of the hearers or onlookers.
When the Salarygate scandal was first reported, Johannes Tomana (I am not sure whether he was already in his current position of Prosecutor-General or not) misled the nation into believing that there was no law to deal with corruption.
Surprisingly, people are arrested or arraigned before the courts almost on a daily basis, to answer charges on corruption.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines an attorney as a person, especially a lawyer, appointed to act for another in business or legal matters. In the United Kingdom and United States of America, the Attorney-General is the country’s chief legal officer.
So highly esteemed is this office, so as to demand that the incumbent conducts oneself with the maturity and dignity that the office bears.
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On the other hand, prosecution or the Prosecutor-General refers to an institution and the role of dealing with criminal issues in court.
The prosecutor leads proceedings against a legal persona or a physical person as may be.
Given these weighty responsibilities, one would expect both offices of the Attorney-General and that of the Prosecutor-General to discharge their assignments with utmost diligence.
Besides, there is a doctrine of organisational behaviour, which instructs that, one may not agree with certain issues as a person, yet he is still required to toe the organisational line.
Agreed, the Prosecutor-General may have his own private views on a number of issues and rightfully so. However, his private views must be subordinated to the public good.
Another intriguing factor is that of sources of the law.
It is not clear whether or not the Prosecutor-General’s Office now shares the role of Legislature, in as far as law crafting and enactment is concerned.
Socially, morally and legally, the Prosecutor-General’s alleged comment on the consent age (12 years) shocked all normal and responsible Zimbabweans from across the divide.
Our legal majority age is 18 years. For one to unilaterally deviate from this agreed position is criminal. The nation is shocked to the bone.
The two unfortunate positions taken by Tomana on Salarygate and the Consent Age (12 years) call for a thorough moral scrutiny before officials are appointed to offices with such immense responsibility.
Not every legal mind is qualified to be a judge, Attorney-General or Prosecutor-General. One’s background, orientation and moral fitness must be taken into account.
Can the Prosecutor-General imagine his 12-year-old daughter, roughly in Grade 7, being sexually molested under disguise that she consented? A junior at law is incapable of entering into a contract including sexual intimacy.
The value system also comes into play under such situations.
One is led to suspect that such discordant views emanate from may be a gender insensitive background. Alternatively, this could be an attempt to tailor-make the law to suit a certain delinquent behaviour.
Family values need to be upheld at all times by everyone.
The sanctity of marriage and the security of children need to be vigorously protected.
This reminds the author of this article of a sermon which he recently heard: “The seat you have been allocated by God at the table of a given institution, how do you use it, what influence do you bring along with you, is it for good or bad?”
Fear God and keep His commandments, every man’s deeds shall be brought to judgement whether good or bad – this is the conclusion of the whole matter. (Ecclesiastes 12 :13,14.)
