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.
