Zimonline

HARARE – Too many of Zimbabwe’s judges and magistrates have benefited from the government’s political largesse that the bench could not be deemed independent, local human rights lawyers and activists said yesterday. The lawyers and activists were reacting to a statement by Judge President Paddington Garwe, when he opened Zimbabwe’s legal year yesterday that the bench was independent and not subservient to President Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) executive director Arnold Tsunga, said the general consensus among the legal fraternity in the country was that the judiciary was compromised both at the personal level of individual judges and at the institutional level. “Let’s look at conditions of employment of the judiciary. The judges and magistrates are mired in poverty, the Judge President mentioned it. The conditions of service are not attractive to the extent that it will be difficult for them to have personal independence when they are economically compromised,” said Tsunga. Tsunga – whose ZHLR has taken Mugabe’s government to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) accusing it of violating human rights, undermining the judiciary and the rule of law – said judges had compromised themselves by accepting land controversially seized from whites. Some of Zimbabwe’s judges such as Justices Ben Hlatshwayo and Chinembiri Bhunu allegedly personally invaded farms while several other judicial officers were also allocated land by Mugabe’s government. Tsunga said: “A number (of judicial officers) have accepted farms which are contested. These farms have not come as written perks (in their contracts of
employment) but as discretion perks by politicians.
“When judges and magistrates are being given and accept discretion perks because of poverty, surely their personal independence is compromised as well. Institutionally, they are also compromised because the operating environment is providing them with serious challenges. Judges are given political cases to handle by politicians bent on settling personal scores.” Top human rights lawyer and the faction-riddled opposition Movement for Democratic Change party’s spokesman on legal affairs David Coltart said the bench’s failure to deal expeditiously with political cases had also cast doubt on its independence and professionalism. Coltart said: “The problem with this judiciary is that it is not seen as independent because of what happened in the last five years in terms of failure to deal with certain political cases expeditiously.” He was referring to the courts’ failure to finalise several petitions by MDC candidates against victory by ZANU PF candidates during elections in the past five years including the petition by the opposition party’s leader Morgan Tsvangirai against Mugabe’s re-election in 2002. Although election petitions are dealt with as urgent, the High Court has over the last three years failed to conclude Tsvangirai’s petition forcing the MDC leader to appeal last year to the Supreme Court, the country’s highest court of law. Officially opening the 2006 legal year, Garwe defended Zimbabwe’s judiciary as independent and professional and challenged critics of the bench to come out in the open and point out their specific grievances to judicial authorities. Zimbabwe’s bench – reconstituted over the last five years after Mugabe purged independent judges – has been criticised by both local and international rights groups for failure to defend the rights of ordinary citizens and opposition activists in the face of increasing repression by the government.

Zimbabwe Independent

THE Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) national council yesterday passed a vote of no confidence in executive members of the pro-senate faction, barring them from carrying out party functions until the party congress next year.

The resolution suspends deputy president Gibson Sibanda, secretary-general Welshman Ncube and his deputy Gift Chimanikire, treasurer Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, information and publicity secretary Paul Themba Nyathi and secretary for policy and research Trudy Stevenson.

At a meeting attended by 57 of the 66-member council, the body adopted a resolution to “dissociate with the pro-senate group” by invoking members’ constitutional right to freedom of association.

“The council resolves that pending their availability for party business, the national council resolves to exercise its freedom of association by not associating with the deputy president, secretary-general, deputy secretary-general, the treasurer-general, the secretary for information and publicity and the secretary for policy and research, among others,” says the resolution passed by delegates from all provinces except Matabeleland South.

Analysts say the resolution was crafted in such a manner as to hobble efforts by the pro-senate group to take their case to court over party assets.

In what is seen as a victory for party leader Morgan Tsvangirai and chairman Isaac Matongo against the pro-senate group, the national council reposed authority to convene all future council meetings in the secretariat while stripping Welshman Ncube of his administrative duties to arrange such meetings.

Youth chairman and MP for Kuwadzana Nelson Chamisa was mandated to take over the role of party spokesman from Nyathi.

The national council resolved that in the absence of Ncube, Dulini-Ncube, and Nyathi since October 12 when differences over participation in senatorial election split the party into two factions, Isaac Matongo would take over their functions.

The council also nullified Tsvangirai’s suspension from the party by the pro-senate group while upholding the suspension imposed on Job Sikhala, MP for St Mary’s.

Sikhala was suspended for his allegations that the MDC received funding from Taiwan, Nigeria and Ghana. He later retracted the allegations.

But the pro-senate group, which rebuffed yesterday’s meeting, fired its own salvo, saying it would not attend a “kangaroo” meeting by a former leader who now has no mandate to call meetings.

Commenting on the resolution to “dissociate” from them, Nyathi said it was misplaced and had no legal standing. It was carried out by people with nothing constructive to do, he said.

“How do you stop a political activist from doing what he has dedicated his life to doing?” Nyathi said.

“It is the most puerile resolution from anyone claiming a desire to confront this regime. It’s nothing exciting. They assume we want to associate with them.”

He disputed the composition of the meeting that resolved to “dissociate” itself from the pro-senate group, saying nine of the provinces did not attend the meeting. Nyathi said those who attended were picked from the streets for the purpose of achieving a quorum.

“That is what people like us are uncomfortable with,” he said.

The two groups are embroiled in an argument over the suspension of Tsvangirai by the Sibanda-led disciplinary committee whose composition has come under the spotlight.

Nyathi said the party would still take Tsvangirai to a disciplinary hearing before congress.

Tsvangirai has scoffed at the suspension saying only the MDC national congress can suspend him.

MDC legal affairs secretary David Coltart said the disciplinary committee had powers to suspend anyone in the party including the president, according to Article 10.4 of the MDC founding constitution.

Zimbabwe Independent
Editor’s Memo

I THOROUGHLY enjoyed the piece we ran on our opinion pages last week by veteran journalist Bill Saidi.

In a typically rasp allegory, Saidi had this to say about the Anti-Corruption minister Paul Mangwana’s hairstyle: “He will always be remembered for a very peculiar hairstyle; or the lack of one. His hair looks uncombed most of the time. Perhaps this is how he wants to be recognised; as Harold Wilson was recognised by his pipe, Margaret Thatcher by her hats, Helmut Schmidt by his snuff, Fidel Castro by his beard and Mugabe by his dyed hair.”

Sithembiso Nyoni’s head is always adorned with fascinating hairstyles and perhaps that could be how she wants to be recognised. Like the Indian premier Morarji Desai who drank his own urine for medicinal purposes, everything about her demeanour appears normal and straightforward until her political life is factored in. Desai eventually let out the shocking secret about his life and his whole history drowned in the acrid liquid.

Perchance Sithembiso will one day tell us the secret of her political survival and how she appears to have become an extremely useful person in the government of President Mugabe.

She does not need to win an election to remain in government. She appears to live a charmed life in which the presidential crane is always at hand to pluck her from the political scrapyard, which is where the electorate in Zimbabwe believes she belongs.

The president was involved in one such rescue operation this week after Sithembiso lost in last weekend’s senate vote in Magwegwe-Lobengula.

To finish off the operation, President Mugabe then put up a mesmerising juggling act. Edna Madzongwe, a non-constituency MP and deputy Speaker of Parliament, was shifted from the lower house to become President of the Senate. The vacancy in the lower house then went to Sithembiso and with it, the reappointment to the portfolio of Small Enterprises Development minister.

She has now lost three times in national elections. She has beaten the record set by veteran politician Enos Nkala who was never able to win an election despite his long history in nationalist politics.

Nkala lost the first-past-the-post poll in Bulawayo in 1985 and 1990 when he had to be accommodated in the Kariba constituency amid protests from Mash West voters. Sithembiso is joined in the league of serial losers by former Bulawayo mayor Joshua Malinga who has also lost in three elections. He has also been appointed non-constituency senator.

Sithembiso was in 2000 routed by MDC’s Thokozani Khuphe in Makokoba. She was appointed a non-constituency member and given the post of Minister of State for Economic Development.

In April she was appointed minister when she was not an MP. She had lost the March poll in the Bulawayo South constituency to the MDC’s David Coltart. Before contesting in Bulawayo, she had literally camped in Nkayi where again the electorate thought she was not the right candidate for them.

So parliament for a brief period this year had 121 MPs because our constitution tolerates this strange arrangement for 90 days during which a constituency should be found for the extra MP. Another juggling act could have saved her.

Ray Kaukonde, who was MP for Mudzi, was appointed governor of Mashonaland East which called for a by-election in the constituency.

However, that did not save the day for her. She reportedly could not take up the offer because the people there did not know her.

In August, having failed to find a constituency, she mutated from minister to become a consultant in the Office of the President.

Attending the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries congress in Nyanga in September, delegates sarcastically bestowed on her a new title of “Honourable Consultant”. But she is back to her former glory as honourable minister. I wonder why she had to go through another embarrassing electoral defeat to regain her post in government.

The story of Sithembiso is a graphic example of a leader subverting the will of the people. She is the epitome of political patronage which is the hallmark of failed governments. If she is not a beneficiary of sheltered employment, then she has to prove that she is too important to be missing from the list of ministers in Mugabe’s government.

She may want to claim credit for mushrooming SMEs in urban centres. She should be reminded though that this was a natural process wrought by the closure of big businesses due to the inclement economic environment.

Under her watch the SMEs and the informal sectors have failed to contribute to national development through taxes and other government levies. Under normal circumstances she should have been swept away by the Murambatsvina tide together with ramshackle shelters housing the informal sector.

She has survived three election defeats but remained in government. Is this how she wants to be remembered?

New Zimbabwe

ZIMBABWE’S warring opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party on Wednesday sought a court interdict against its leader restraining him from conducting business on behalf of the party.

The MDC has been rocked by factional fighting, culminating in last week’s suspension of Morgan Tsvangirai by the party’s seven-member disciplinary committee. Four members of that committee came up with the decision.

Tsvangirai now has 10 days to show cause why a final order should not be issued against him — barring him from representing the party at any level and compelling him to surrender all MDC property.

The court action followed Tsvangirai’s defiance of his suspension announced in a letter by his deputy and chairman of the party’s disciplinary committee, Gibson Sibanda.

Sibanda said Tsvangirai had “acted in wilful violation of the MDC constitution” and was suspended from conducting any party business. Tsvangirai was also instructed to hand over all MDC property and relinquish his perks.

MDC sources told New Zimbabwe.com last night that Tsvangirai had planned to file his own court petition on Wednesday, objecting to being prevented from entering the party’s Harvest House headquarters or using MDC cars.

Tsvangirai’s camp appeared to have noted that there could be a technical way out of the suspension because all MDC properties are registered in the names of two directors — Ian Makoni and Reverend Tim Neil of the Anglican Church.

All the properties, however, are owned and maintained by the MDC.

Tsvangirai’s arguments are now likely to be heard within the next 10 days during which he has to oppose the granting of a final order.

Tsvangirai, through his spokesman William Bango, has claimed that the MDC constitution did not provide for the suspension of the president, although this has been rejected by the party’s legal affairs secretary, David Coltart.

Bango has also suggested that Sibanda is an interested party who has already taken a position in the conflict, thereby disqualifying him from acting as an impartial judge on the matter.

The MDC split was dramatised by differences over the Senate, a newly created legislative body whose elections were held at the weekend.

Sibanda and other senior colleagues say Tsvangirai breached the party’s constitution when he went against a vote of the party’s national council supporting participation in the senate elections.

Sibanda’s group fielded 26 candidates out of a possible 50, and gained seven seats in the MDC’s traditional stronghold of Matabeleland.

Analysts say while Sibanda’s camp has an upper hand on the legal front, “Tsvangirai controls the political temperatures” and his position enjoys popular support.

Some among Tsvangirai’s camp are openly talking of starting a new group called the Resistance Movement to wage a democratic struggle against President Robert Mugabe’s autocratic administration.

The Cape Argus (SA)

Morgan Tsvangirai has been suspended as president of the Zimbabwe opposition MDC, at least according to the party’s constitution. MDC legal secretary David Coltart, who has refused to be aligned to either side in a dispute which has ripped the party apart, said that according to Article 10.4 of the founding constitution, the disciplinary committee had the power to suspend anyone. Coltart was disturbed by the letter of suspension delivered on Saturday during the senate election, which the MDC lost. “I question the wisdom of taking this action at this point in time,” he said. The disciplinary committee is chaired by vice-president Gibson Sibanda, who met three other members, including lawyer Josphat Tshuma, in Bulawayo last week. They drew up the letter and sent it to Tsvangirai. At first Tsvangirai reacted by claiming that he could not be suspended, but yesterday, via his spokesman William Bango, he said: “I don’t want to get bogged down in legal interpretations. This is a political problem and would have to be sorted out politically.”

SW Radio Africa
By Violet Gonda, SW Radio Africa

The MDC legal team led by David Coltart has said that investigations for the controversial 2002 presidential election have exposed massive rigging by the Mugabe regime. The investigations, which will be made public within the next month, will show wide spread voter fraud and breaches of the electoral act. Coltart said the team discovered that some people voted twice while others voted 3 times.

The allegations come in the wake of a decision by the High Court Justice Ben Hlatshwayo to dismiss Morgan Tsvangirai’s election petition. In his decision handed down on Monday, the judge said the petition shouldn’t be used to achieve political objectives. Coltart said the opposition party was deeply concerned by this judgment. He said it “ignores the fact that we relied on purely legal and constitutional arguments.”

Hlatshwayo had taken 2 years to come up with this decision after the MDC had again been forced to go to the Supreme Court arguing that the judge’s delay was unconstitutional. It has been a struggle for the opposition party to challenge the results of the presidential elections. The Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede originally denied the MDC the right to examine all electoral materials like the voters roll and ballot boxes. He only complied this year after the opposition party won a court order.

Coltart said inspection of the voters’ roll has been revealing. He said although some of the ballot boxes have been infested by termites and eaten away, the MDC has been able to examine voting materials in 12 constituencies and have revealed breaches of the electoral act.

Voice of America
– Peta Thornycroft

Analysts in Zimbabwe say that extension of U.S. travel sanctions to include more senior members of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party are welcomed but do not go far enough. The government has not reacted to the widening of the travel sanctions, which now include central bank governor Gideon Gono, a regular visitor to Washington.

David Coltart, legal secretary of the opposition group, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said the new U.S. travel sanctions are a stern message to President Mugabe to stop hindering democratic reforms in Zimbabwe. He said the extension of the sanctions to an additional 128 ZANU-PF members was a warning to Mr. Mugabe to reverse the draconian policies and laws he implemented in the last five years or expect tougher action.

John Makumbe, veteran political scientist from the University of Zimbabwe said the travel sanctions irritated senior members of ZANU-PF. He said he was pleased that sanctions included central bank governor Gono. But, he said, the measures do not go far enough and the United States should ensure that no children of ZANU-PF leaders should be given visas to travel to the United States on holiday or for study.

Veteran economist Tony Hawkins said the travel sanctions may have annoyed senior ZANU-PF leaders, but are largely ineffective in helping change government policy.

He said if they were extended to all children of ZANU-PF leaders, who mostly study in the United States, it might make a significant difference.

There was no one from the ZANU-PF government who would speak to the foreign press Thursday about the extension of travel sanctions.

The United States and Zimbabwe continue normal trade since the country’s independence in 1980.

SW Radio Africa

The MDC legal expert David Coltart has spoken out over the controversial senate election that has divided the opposition party. He says positions have become entrenched over this issue and hoped that things can be restored to normal, but added it would be difficult given the enormous amount of damage done to relationships.

Leaders from both camps have over the weeks embarked on a war of words which degenerated into personal verbal attacks. Coltart, who said there are strong arguments from both sides, is saddened that people within the MDC, civil society and media have adopted absolutist positions as if there is only one side to the argument. He lamented the fundamental lack of tolerance of genuine views expressed by people with opposing views. The opposition official believes this is an indictment, not just against the MDC but against pro-democracy groups in Zimbabwe.

Coltart who is the MDC Secretary for Justice asked, “Are we as a party, as members of civil society, as members of the media genuinely committed to democracy? If we are genuinely committed to democracy we would listen to views of other people. We would consider them…. Even if we disagreed with them we would acknowledge their rights to have these views and that hasn’t happened.”

Both sides have made accusations against each other and labelled each other traitors and sell-outs. Coltart said this is unacceptable saying this has been a test that all of us have failed and hoped that as a nation we all take stock and think about these unrestrained comments that have been made by both sides. He said this has been damaging to all parties who are trying to get rid of this brutal regime.

When asked what his position over the participation in the senate election is, he said personally he does not want to be in a senate as it is costly for the nation but he is persuaded by those who believe strategically there is no choice.

He said he has been accused of sitting on the fence, but added: “This is a no win situation. If we are not in this election we are going to lose in certain respects and if we participate we are going to lose…these senate elections at the end of the day are irrelevant. The day after senate elections the ZANU PF regime is still going to deal with 400% inflation, 5 million Zimbabweans with insufficient food, 1.5 million Zimbabweans who are HIV positive and none of these issues are going to be addressed… to the extent that all this hullabaloo about the senate is misplaced.”

Zimbabwe Independent

Harare – Political violence in Zimbabwe has fallen to its lowest levels since the emergence of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change six years ago.

Analysts say this is because President Robert Mugabe has successfully subdued the opposition and civil society.

The Human Rights Forum (HRF) on Monday released its latest monthly statistics, which show that political violence during September was at its lowest level since the MDC burst onto the political scene and ended Mugabe’s de facto one-party rule.

The HRF report shows that in September there were less than a dozen arrests of political activists and no incidents of torture.

Political protests are rare in Zimbabwe these days, and draconian security laws – tougher than those used by the Rhodesian regime during the liberation war in the 1970s – make it an offence for any demonstrations without police permission, which is regularly denied to opposition groups.

The HRF gathers its information from volunteers who offer information, and it does not have the capacity to seek full information in rural areas.

John Makumbe, a senior political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe, explained on Monday: “Zanu-PF, which perpetrated most political violence since 1999, now feels safe and secure as it has subdued all effective political opposition.”

He said violence, repressive legislation and state security agents had effectively managed all opposition attempts to challenge Zanu-PF’s 25-year rule.

More than 400 MDC members have been killed since it came close to beating Zanu-PF at the general election in 2000 – only six months after the party had been launched.

Tens of thousands of its members have been tortured, jailed or had their property destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of its supporters fled to other countries, mostly South Africa and Britain.

MDC legal secretary David Coltart said on Monday: “Zanu-PF discovered that political violence damages the facade of democracy in Zimbabwe. Hunger is a much more effective political weapon, and in rural areas, many MDC supporters are constantly denied access to food.”

Zimbabwe’s Grain Marketing Board is the only legal cereals trader and importer of maize for human consumption. Most small towns go regularly without any mealie meal, and subsistence farmers ran out of grain more than three months ago, according to non-governmental organisations.

The World Food Programme has not yet begun its new emergency programme to feed up to four million of the hungriest Zimbabweans.

HRF director Eilean Sawyer said: “Information we are collecting now for the October report will show that political violence is intra-party: within Zanu-PF and within the MDC.”

The MDC has split into two factions: one that favours participation in Senate elections that take place on Saturday, and the other which is against.