The legal profession is shattered! The business community is mourning. Sternford Moyo is no more! He breathed his last just after 8am on Friday, July 5, 2024. Our collective psyche is numbed. We are still trying to process and digest the sad reality that this legal and business icon has been snatched away from us. James 4: 14 “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”
Sternford was a legal giant that straddled the length and breadth of the legal profession and the business world with confidence and zest. Words come short. Sincere condolences to the surviving wife, Sara Moyo, nee Mukonoweshuro, the children Batanai, Rufaro, and Makomborero.
Sincere condolences to you all relatives, colleagues and friends, Malusi Ndiweni, Genius Maposa, Muchadeyi Masunda, Scanlen & Holderness, International Bar Association [IBA], Delta Beverages, Alpha Media Holdings [AMH] – just a snapshot of the lives the late Sternford touched in a mighty way.
Time and space constraints deny justice to Sternford’s true and complete life story. He was born in Mwenezi, Masvingo Province, on May 28, 1956, the only child of Sifana Moyo and Idah Moyo, nee Hwande. He did his primary education at Pambe Primary School in Mwenezi and enrolled at Hope Fountain Mission in Matabeleland North Province for part of his secondary education.
He did A levels at Mzilikazi High School in Bulawayo. Sternford would spend the next four years studying law at the University of Rhodesia, now the University of Zimbabwe [UZ], graduating with distinctions in the Bachelor of Law degree [BL] in 1980, and the Bachelor of Laws degree [LLB] in 1981.
Some of Sternford’s classmates in law school included Mr Justice Moses Foroma, Mrs Thembiwe Mazingi nee Chikosi, and the late Mrs Florence Ziumbe, to mention just but a few.
From UZ Sternford, together with Ziumbe, joined Scanlen & Holderness, one of the oldest law firms in Zimbabwe. He would stay there for the rest of his legal career.
Starting at the shopfloor as a junior intern, Sternford rose through the ranks to become a partner in 1984. He was the first black partner.
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At the time of his death he was the senior partner and chairman of the firm.
Over the next four decades, Sternford would establish firm footprints across the legal profession in Zimbabwe and abroad. He became president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe [LSZ] from 2000. Together with Wilbert Mapombere they increased the focus of the regulatory body on human rights issues, something that would cost them their liberty and freedom for several weeks.
In the region, Sternford was elected President of the Sadc [Southern African Development Community] Lawyers’ Association. Abroad he became co-chair of the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association [IBA]. Arguably, the pinnacle of Sternford’s international legal career was in January 2021 when he became the first person of African descent to become President of the IBA, an association of leading lawyers around the globe.
But the icing on the cake was undoubtedly in September 2022 when he was awarded the Freedom of the City of London, England, in recognition of his sterling work as a fearless and trailblazing human rights defender.
In all these years he was routinely getting listed in Global Chambers, a reputable international directory of leading law firms and lawyers around the world. For years, he together with Canaan Dube had been members of the Judicial Service Commission that, among other things, saw the ascension to the Bench of quite a number of individuals some of whom have become the senior judges of Zimbabwe today.
Sternford was in the genre of those lawyers like Simplicius Chihambakwe, Honour Mkushi, Muchadeyi Masunda, Mordecai Mahlangu, Cannan Dube, Edwin Manikai, Addington Chinake, among others, who successfully combine legal practice with corporate work.
At the time of his death Sternford was the Chairman of Delta Beverages. Before that, he had been Chairman of Schweppes Zimbabwe Ltd, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority [Zimra] and Stanbic Bank, among others.
He was a director in several companies, including the media group Alpha Media Holdings and Portland Holdings Limited. He was also a trustee of the wildlife conservation organization, the Malilangwe Trust.
Most of us who completed law school at the UZ in 1986 first got to know Sternford as the dude driving an immaculate sky-blue Renault 12 motor vehicle who was going out with our sister and classmate Sara Mukonoweshuro.
Some of the members in that class included Justice Amy Tsanga, Justice Tawanda Chitapi, former Justices Martin Makonese and Webester Chinamora, attorneys Collin Kuhuni, Cassian Jakachira, Shepherd Mushonga, Iqbal Ahmed, Charity Gunah, Ashton Musunga, Dumisani Mashingaidze, Cuthbert Mpame, to mention a few.
Some male students in our class had a grudging admiration of Sternford which was tinged with jealous and a bit of resentment because we felt protective of our sister Sara! This is something we would joke about with Sara and Sternford over the years!
In November 1987 Sternford tied the knot with Sara Mukonoweshuro. Virtually everyone in our class was invited. Ever since then our class of LLB 1986 developed a strong bond with Sternford.
We affectionately regarded him as our dear brother-in-law and mentor. Among other things, we made him an honorary member of our class and added him onto our WhatsApp group.
As for myself, I would get to know Sternford better when I was interviewed for a job at Scanlen & Holderness in August 1986. On the interviewing panel was himself, and two of his partners Mary Welsh and Richard Phillips.
All of them would fire what I considered very difficult questions. After the interview, I left the boardroom with my head reeling. I knew I had lost the job. To my utter surprise Sternford contacted me a couple of weeks later. He offered me the job. I could start work on 2 January 1987 if I passed my final year exams!
I joined Scanlen & Holderness in January 1987 and associated with Sternford for the next twenty six years: first as an intern under mentorship by him, then a senior professional assistant, and finally a junior partner.
We became more like brothers. I was the third black partner at the firm after himself and the late Justice Anele Matika.
Eventually I would become Sternford’s second in command. In the course of time Mr Justice Nicholas Mathonsi, Professor Lovemore Madhuku and Justice Phillipa Phillips, among others, would join the firm. Much to Sternford’s disappointment, I left Scanlen & Holderness to join the bench in 2012.
Sternford was demonstrably one of the sharpest legal minds this country has ever produced. He was astute.
He was analytical and clinical in his execution of duties. He is gone. The void he has left behind shall be difficult to fill, not only at Scanlen & Holderness, but also in the legal profession as a whole, the business world and the international community.
Go well my brother! Go well my mentor! Till we meet again.
- Justice Joseph Mafusire is a judge of the High Court of Zimbabwe.
