Moses Chinhengo: The judge who planted trees in the desert of injustice
Hon Justice OBK Dingake | Thursday October 2, 2025 09:45
His untimely departure represents a very sad moment of grief for his family. But it also constitutes a personal loss for us, friends and colleagues. His unexpected passing is very painful. To say I was heartbroken would be an understatement. I didn’t anticipate his passing so soon, even though I knew he was unwell. We last spoke on the phone two weeks ago. I indicated to him that I would be travelling home to Botswana on the 16th of September 2025 and that I plan to drive to Zimbabwe soon after my arrival to spend a few days with him. Three days after our chat he sent me a one liner message that now torments me: “Welcome to the continent. I hope you are coming home for good.” I was looking forward to seeing him and hoped he would recover. I convey my deepest condolences to his family, relatives and friends. The light of a great lantern has been extinguished, and a profound darkness descends upon the soul.
To learn of the passing of my friend, my brother, my ideological companion, Justice Moses Chinhengo, is to feel the foundations of one’s own world tremble. In the grand theatre of the law, where societal conflicts are distilled into questions of principle and precedent, the judge is both an actor and an architect. The gavel falls not only to resolve a dispute but to lay another brick in the ever-expanding edifice of jurisprudence. In Botswana, a nation celebrated for its stable democracy, few figures have shaped its laws as profoundly as Justice Chinhengo, despite serving for only a few years. His ascent to the apex of the judicial system in Lesotho, marked the zenith of a career defined by a formidable intellect, an unyielding reverence for legal tradition, and a philosophy that came to define the essence of law. Judge Chinhengo was a product of his background. He emerged not from the hallowed halls of privilege, but from the resilient soil of rural Zimbabwe. It was from Zimbabwe with its rich struggle credentials and rich with the wisdom of community, that he drew his profound understanding of justice. He learned the law of the land before he learned the law of the books, and this duality made him a jurist of unparalleled empathy.
His journey from those humble beginnings to the pinnacle of judicial service across Southern Africa - a celebrated pillar of the Zimbabwe High Court, a wise and impartial voice on the Benches of Botswana and Namibia, an Acting Justice of the Supreme Court of Namibia and the Court of Appeal of Lesotho - was not a quest for prestige, but a pilgrimage of principle. His philosophy was a rare and beautiful alloy - a pragmatic liberalism. He understood, with the clarity of Cardozo, that the law is not a sterile set of commands, but a living, breathing organism that must be nurtured by the “tides and currents” of human experience. He was a master of its logic, but knew that logic alone could be a barren master. He believed, with Plato, that the ultimate goal of the law is the establishment of a just harmony in the soul of the citizen and the state. He was a builder, not a wrecker. In an age of ideological shouting, he was the calm, reasoned voice that could bridge divides. His legacy is not bound by national borders; it is a continental endowment. As Chair of the Africa Judges and Jurists Forum (AJJF), he stood as a sentinel for judicial independence. He was a great rock upon which the foundation of our continental aspirations for democracy, the rule of law and good governance was laid. He fought not for abstract ideals, but for the very idea of Africa itself—an Africa where the judiciary would be the unshakeable guarantor of the freedom and dignity of every individual. In his judgements, he often waged “the battle of ideas,” and he waged it with an intellectual integrity that commanded respect even from those who disagreed. And now, he is gone.
The personal void he leaves is a chasm that cannot be filled. He was my confidant, my ideological soulmate, with whom I shared the unspoken language of shared belief. The memory of our conversations, our debates that were never arguments, our shared hope for a more just world - these are now precious, piercing treasures. The pain is acute, yet its source was a life of such brilliance. Justice Chinhengo’s contribution was to humanise and demystify the judicial role. He replaced the image of a judge as a logical machine with that of a principled artisan, crafting law with the tools of logic, history, custom, and most importantly social policy. In essence Justice Chinhengo taught a generation of lawyers and judges across Africa that the law is a living instrument, and its highest purpose is to serve human needs. His work stands as a timeless meditation on the balance between stability and progress, logic and justice, which lies at the very heart of law. But let us not merely mourn this finest son and judge of Africa. Let us remember that this was a man who spent his life planting forests. He planted seeds of integrity in the judiciary, seeds of courage in young lawyers, and seeds of hope in the oppressed. The great rock has moved, but the edifice it supported stands stronger.
The lantern is out, but countless other lights have been kindled by its flame. Justice Chinhengo’s departure demands of those of us who remain, his colleagues at AJJF and all judges and jurists in the continent to confront the debilitating phenomenon in Africa of having constitutions but hardly constitutionalism and good governance, and to commit ourselves to addressing many challenges we face in democracy, the rule of law and good governance. As I conclude one question keeps popping up in my mind: What should we do, as African Judges and Jurists, to ensure that the legacy Justice Chinhengo left behind is not betrayed? May his pilgrim soul, forged in the beautiful landscape of Zimbabwe and honed in the courts of a continent, find eternal peace. His work on this earth is done, and it was more than glorious - it was essential. He has passed the torch. It is now our sacred duty to carry its light forward. Rest in peace, my dear friend. You will be sorely missed. You have crossed the river. We remain, guided by the stars you helped to set in the judicial firmament.
*Hon. Justice Professor OBK Dingake is a Justice of the National and Supreme Courts of Papua New Guinea