From The Guardian (UK), 2 March
Reluctant judge defies Mugabe
Zimbabwe's chief justice spurns 'illegal' order to leave office and make way for compliant successor
Harare - As Zimbabwe's white chief justice steered his Mercedes towards the gates of the supreme court yesterday he did not know if the policeman on guard would admit him or arrest him. As it turned out, the officer saluted, the gates swung open and Anthony Gubbay - a Manchester-born lawyer described as quiet and even timid by colleagues - reluctantly found himself leading the struggle to defend the last arm of state prepared to defy President Robert Mugabe.
The government tried to sack Mr Gubbay as the supreme court's chief justice earlier this week after months of vilifying him as a racist because he oversaw rulings which found Mr Mugabe's wholesale redistribution of white-owned farms, and other misuses of power, illegal. Mr Gubbay had already agreed to take early retirement in June but the government wants him out of the way before then. He stands in the way of a grand plan to purge the hierarchy of Zimbabwe's judiciary - including the entire supreme court and much of the high court - to ensure that the government gets its way over the land seizures and that the ruling party, Zanu-PF, retains power.
Zimbabwe's justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, had told Mr Gubbay to vacate his office by yesterday. But the chief justice went to work anyway, and forced Mr Mugabe to seek another way to seize control of the judiciary. In parliament this week, the ruling party derided Mr Gubbay as a man who "thinks and behaves as if he is the last British governor in Zimbabwe". A Zanu-PF MP, Christopher Mushowe, alleged that the chief justice was "infiltrated into Zimbabwe by British intelligence to overthrow the government" even though he arrived in 1958 when it was the colony of Southern Rhodesia.
The chief justice's supporters dismiss the allegations of racism as preposterous. Mr Gubbay gained a distinguished reputation as a lawyer for defending black opponents of Ian Smith's illegal regime. And it was Mr Mugabe who elevated Mr Gubbay to the position of chief justice, having described him as a "nice man". Would Zimbabwe's president have chosen an avowed racist for such a role? "Gubbay would not have chosen to take on Mugabe like this," one of the chief justice's colleagues said. "To him, it's all a terrible mistake. But he's been put into a position where they have so humiliated a decent man that he has had to fight back. It was all an accident, really."
The accident came from a meeting Mr Gubbay held with Zimbabwe's vice-president, Simon Muzenda, to demand better security for all judges after public death threats by "war veterans" unhappy with court rulings about the land seizures. Mr Muzenda said the government had little faith in the judges, and Mr Gubbay said that if that was the case, and if the police were not prepared to protect them, perhaps he should resign. At a second meeting, the justice minister said the government would not protect the judges and reminded Mr Gubbay of his threat to quit. The chief justice was cornered. He agreed to take early retirement in June and to go on leave from yesterday. The government had what it wanted. But Mr Mugabe's men were greedy. Perhaps they wanted everything immediately, or perhaps they felt the need to humiliate Mr Gubbay. Either way, on Tuesday the chief justice read in the paper of a letter from the justice minister ordering him out of his office and announcing that a designated successor was ready to move in. Mr Gubbay said that the appointment of a replacement was illegal, and withdrew his offer to take early retirement.
The battle for control of the courts might be brief if the government resorts to the methods used to occupy the farms. But it may also decide to fight it out in the very courts it is seeking to control, without any assurance of success. There is much at stake. For a start, the courts are deciding whether to overturn the government's slender majority in parliament because of vote-rigging in June's election. The government is also apparently laying the legal ground to bar the principal opposition candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, from running in the presidential election. It will ultimately be the supreme court that decides that case. If Mr Gubbay is still chief justice with his present colleagues around him, there is little prospect of the government pulling off that particularly dirty trick.
From The Times (UK), 2 March
Defiant judge stands up to Mugabe
Harare - Zimbabwe's British-born Chief Justice faced down President Mugabe and reported for duty at the Supreme Court yesterday despite the Government's insistence that he must leave office. But there was no let-up in the pressure: a war veteran charged with attempted murder barged into the court trying to terrify Anthony Gubbay, 68, into quitting. Joseph Chinotimba, the self-styled commander of the land invasion force, demanded to see the judge, who was in his chambers in defiance of an order that he leave by yesterday. Four policemen are believed to have told him that they did not know where the judge was. Chinotimba left court swearing that he would be back today with supporters.
Chinotimba, a municipal policeman who has been on paid leave since the seizures of white-owned farms began a year ago, led an armed invasion of the court last November when Chief Justice Gubbay was ruling on the land issue. He is on bail for trying to murder a neighbour whom he accused of being a member of the main opposition party. His menacing presence was the most blatant act of intimidation yesterday against the judge in a campaign run by the ruling Zanu PF party. One of its prominent MPs, Christopher Mushohwe, insulted the judge in Parliament on Wednesday, calling him a Manchester man with links to very powerful Jewish financial interests. Despite the threats, the Chief Justice insists that he will be at work again today. Patrick Chinamasa, Justice Minister, backed down on his ultimatum that he vacate his official residence by next Friday but insisted that he must leave office at once.
From The Times (UK), 2 March
Fury as Chirac agrees to see Mugabe
Brussels/Paris/Harare - President CHIRAC of France and a European Commissioner have agreed to meet Robert Mugabe despite the Zimbabwean President's campaign of intimidation against his country's judges, journalists, political opponents and white farmers. Mr Mugabe will be received by Jacques Chirac at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Tuesday and is to have lunch with Poul Nielson, the Development Commissioner, in Brussels on Monday. Zimbabwean diplomats said Mr Mugabe would also meet Guy Verhofstadt, Belgium's Prime Minister, on Monday. Yesterday afternoon an official in Mr Verhofstadt's office confirmed that they would meet to discuss ways to secure peace in the DRC, but his spokesman told The Times later that there had been a breakdown in communications and no such meeting would take place.
"I'm shocked and amazed they are giving him such respectability," said Eldridge Culverwell, chairman of the British branch of the MDC, Zimbabwe's main opposition party. "I think it's a betrayal of the people of Zimbabwe, and of what Europe represents. Heads of state all over Europe have more than enough information to realise Mugabe is violating human rights on all fronts." Francis Maude, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, demanded that M Chirac and Mr Nielson bluntly tell Mr Mugabe that what was going on in Zimbabwe was utterly unacceptable. For Mr Mugabe to be accepted in either Brussels or Paris would be a "gross betrayal of the brave men and women fighting for the rule of law in Zimbabwe".
In Harare, an MDC spokesman said Mr Mugabe "does not deserve to enjoy the trappings of power as if he is an honoured guest. If they insist on seeing him we hope they take the opportunity to pressure him on his human rights abuses." The initial reaction of one British source to the news was: "You're joking!" The Foreign Office issued a statement saying: "The international community should be taking every opportunity to get across our concern about the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe."
Mr Mugabe will arrive in Paris with Stan Mudenge, his Foreign Minister, after attending a two-day OAU summit in Libya. French officials played down his visit, saying the Zimbabwe leader was simply "passing through" Paris and his visit was not official. "Many African leaders come through Paris and pay a visit to the presidency," one said. Mr Nielson's office confirmed he had agreed to have lunch with President Mugabe in Brussels. A spokesman denied that the meeting was inappropriate or that Mr Nielson in any way condoned what was happening in Zimbabwe. "Sometimes there are situations where we have to continue a dialogue to try and play a positive role," he said. "The Commission's overarching objective is the promotion of a stable, democratic political environment in Zimbabwe."
The EU produced a report on violence and intimidation employed by Mr Mugabe's supporters in last June's parliamentary elections. Last Monday, at Britain's behest, EU foreign ministers agreed to launch a formal dialogue with Zimbabwe to express their concerns about the deteriorating situation there. However, the Commission has little obvious leverage over Zimbabwe because it has already reduced its aid programme to barely 10 million euros (£6 million) a year for Aids and education, and that is given to non-governmental organisations. French officials dismissed suggestions that M Chirac's decision to meet him conflicted with the Anglo-French accord - reaffirmed by Tony Blair and President Chirac at a summit last month - on co-ordinating the two Governments' policies in Africa.
From The Daily News, 1 March
Witness in Tsvangirai's election petition case breaks down in court
Sanderson Makombe, a witness in Morgan Tsvangirai's electoral petition, broke down and wept while testifying in court. Appearing before Justice James Devittie yesterday, Makombe, 25, said he survived an attempt on his life on 15 April last year, but his colleagues, Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mabika, died when they were set on fire, allegedly by Joseph Mwale, a member of the CIO then based at Murambinda in Buhera, and Kainos Tom "Kitsiyatota" Zimunya, a war veteran. Chiminya, Mabika and Makombe were in the cab of a red Mazda B2200 truck when they were attacked by Mwale, Kitsiyatota and Zanu PF supporters just outside Murambinda Business Centre.
Tsvangirai is petitioning the High Court to nullify the result of the Buhera North constituency, alleging that murder, rampant intimidation and massive electoral fraud cost him the seat which Kenneth Manyonda of Zanu PF won. As Makombe wept, Justice Devittie and Advocate Eric Matinenga, representing Tsvangirai, proposed that the court adjourn, but Makombe insisted he wanted to finish giving his evidence. Makombe said he and Chiminya set up MDC structures in Buhera at the beginning of April last year, having successfully campaigned against the government-sponsored constitutional draft.
He said on the fateful day last year, a Zanu PF vehicle drove past their car, driven by Chiminya, and blocked the road. "I then saw two armed men," Makombe said. "One of them, Mwale, approached our vehicle and started beating Chiminya with the butt of his gun. Talent was screaming as the attackers broke the windscreen." Makombe said he managed to escape from the vehicle through one of the windows and hit one of the assailants before he fled. Said Makombe: "I then heard them saying that they should fetch the petrol from their car. I saw them opening their car and sprinkle some liquid. They poured the liquid in the front seat where Chiminya and Mabika were sitting. Thereafter, the car went up in flames."
Chiminya then managed to get out of the car and was running away, his clothes in flames. Mabika followed behind him, also in flames. As he spoke, Makombe broke down and started crying. A sombre atmosphere descended on the court. Makombe said the death of Chiminya and Mabika still haunted him. "Some people at the scene refused to lift their bodies from the truck," he said. "I did that without gloves. When we held Chiminya, his body was still burning. Whenever I see meat, I remember Chiminya and Mabika. They were hard-working party cadres." Makombe graduated from the Harare Polytechnic last year with a diploma in human resources management. The hearing continues today.
From The New York Times, 1 March
Past Zimbabwe Critic Now Mugabe Aide
Johannesburg - The words were unmistakably blunt. Zimbabwe's government is ``inept.'' President Robert Mugabe displays ``ineffectual leadership.'' Ruling party officials are ``puffed up and fatheaded.'' The writer, four years ago, was Jonathan Moyo, then a leading government critic. Now as information minister in that same government, Moyo is the public face of what other opponents say is a government attack on the media, the courts and the opposition.
``I cannot think of any other person who was as critical of the government as Moyo,'' said Basildon Peta, head of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists and news editor of The Financial Gazette. With a mix of charm, intelligence and confidence, Moyo, 44, has morphed from a gadfly academic to one of the most powerful people in government. Moyo is a top Mugabe adviser, with an office near the president's and a seat next to him at Mugabe's birthday party. As the economy crumbles, Moyo rides in a chauffeured government Mercedes.
With Mugabe's popularity crashing, Moyo has gone on the offensive, closing private radio stations, criticizing independent newspapers, calling for the resignation of Supreme Court justices and defending the arrest of opposition officials. He has also made the climate uncertain for foreign media. Last week he ordered two foreign journalists deported, citing irregularities in their work permits, though other officials said the government did not like their coverage. In a telephone interview, Moyo told The Associated Press he was simply enforcing the law, and Zimbabwe was being judged unfairly. ``Zimbabwe is here today because we fought for it. We fought for the freedoms we are enjoying and we are the only ones who know how special and vulnerable and perishable these freedoms are,'' he said.
Shingai Nyoka, an official at the Media Monitoring Project, which investigates bias in Zimbabwe's media, said: ``It's not just the press. Government is trying to clamp down on any voice that it thinks is undermining its credibility.'' The private press has a potent weapon, however: Moyo's old columns. In one 1997 piece, reprinted by The Daily News in October, Moyo said ruling party stalwarts ``have grown old and tired in their political jobs.'' ``Because of Mugabe's ineffectual leadership, his Cabinet of like-minded grateful people has become so inept, in the face of worsening economic and political problems, that it is now producing a paralyzing anti-synergy, where the whole is less than the sum of its parts,'' Moyo wrote.
Moyo says the situation in the country has evolved since he wrote those
columns. ``An article is not a bible where you have written the truth once and
for all and for all time, and the environment is frozen,'' he told AP. ``One has
to look at the context.'' Moyo made his name as an outspoken academic at the
University of Zimbabwe. In 1993, he went to work in Nairobi for the Ford
Foundation, which is now suing him, claiming he embezzled funds. Moyo denies it.
He later was a visiting professor at South Africa's University of the
Witwatersrand, where through lax oversight he drew a salary that was ``well in
excess of a senior professor -- a very senior professor,'' long after his
research funding ran out, said Tom Lodge, chairman of the university's political
science department. The university wants Moyo to repay about $80,000. Moyo
denies that too.
His rise through government began in 1999 when he
returned to Zimbabwe to help write a constitution that would have strengthened
Mugabe's powers but was rejected in a referendum. Moyo became ruling party
spokesman before the June parliamentary elections that dealt the party its worst
setback since Mugabe led the country to independence in 1980. After the
elections, Moyo entered the inner circle of power. As information minister and a
member of the ruling party's politburo, he has led the government crackdown on
the independent media. In recent months, authorities and ruling party militants
have attacked journalists 12 times, according to the journalists' union. A bomb
made from military-type explosives severely damaged The Daily News' printing
press in January, days after Moyo called the paper a threat to national
security. The newspapers' editors blamed the government for the
blast.
``You get the Oklahoma City building bombed and hundreds of people
dying and you don't say there is no democracy in America. But here they bomb The
Daily News and you say there is no democracy,'' Moyo told AP. Moyo closed two
independent radio stations in October, despite a High Court decision declaring
the state's broadcast monopoly unconstitutional. ``There was repression
(before), but it's now much worse under Moyo,'' said Peta, of the journalists'
union. ``The press is considered some kind of opposition party by this
government.'' Moyo is now preparing new, and reportedly stricter, regulations
for the media. In a 1992 column, Moyo said similar plans ``should not be allowed
to see the light of day.''
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 2 March
Cartoonist in front line against Mugabe thugs
Sketching furiously in a corner of a crowded office is one of the sharpest thorns in the flesh of President Mugabe's regime. Tony Namate, the cartoonist of the Daily News, Zimbabwe's biggest selling newspaper, is fast becoming a folk hero in a country where journalists are routinely harassed, detained and tortured by the authorities. Mr Namate, 38, enjoys a remarkable popularity. He said: "This is one of the most depressing periods Zimbabwe has ever been through and people want escapism. If they can't hit back at their leaders, people want to laugh at them. And they want their leaders to know they are being laughed at."
Mr Namate's cartoons portray Mr Mugabe as a ridiculous figure and mock his public statements. As the economy collapsed and queueing for petrol became a national pastime, the president declared last March: "I don't know who could have managed this economy better than me." Mr Namate responded with the cartoon above. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/01/3/2/wzim102.gif (Apologies to readers without internet access.) Yet his jibes carry a price. The Daily News has been the target of two bomb attacks, one of which wrecked its printing press. Mr Namate fears for his safety. He said: "Drawing cartoons here is very dangerous."
Readers can see Tony Namate's cartoons on The Daily News website at www.dailynews.co.zw and by clicking the link on the home page of our website, www.zwnews.com.
From The Star (SA), 1 March
Namibia to follow in DRC troop withdrawal
Windhoek - Namibia is to follow the lead of Uganda and Rwanda and begin withdrawing its troops from the DRC, a foreign ministry source said late on Wednesday. The official, who did not want to be named, said: "The boys are coming back." He gave no indication of when Namibian soldiers can be expected to withdraw from the DRC, where they have been deployed since late 1998 to help government troops fight rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda.
In the first major withdrawal of foreign troops since DRC President Joseph Kabila took over from his assassinated father Laurent in January, Rwanda and Uganda on Wednesday began pulling back troops from frontline towns in the DRC. Rwandan and Ugandan military commanders have said the withdrawals should be seen as a sign that they are prepared to give peace a chance in the vast central African state that has been wracked by war for two and half years. The troop redeployment follows an agreement reached by the six warring parties in the DRC at a meeting with the UN Security Council a week ago to begin a process of disengagement on March 15.
Namibian President Sam Nujoma had until then maintained that he would not call back his soldiers from the DRC until a UN peacekeeping force is deployed in that country. Nujoma's office and the Namibian defence ministry made no comment on Wednesday on the early withdrawal of Ugandan and Rwandan troops. Windhoek has never revealed the number of soldiers it has deployed in the DRC, but the numbers are widely estimated at 2 000. Zimbabwe and Angola also have troops in the DRC fighting on the side of the Kinshasa government.
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