via More questions raised over ‘missing’ Zim election report | SW Radio Africa by Alex Bell on Wednesday, February 26, 2014
More questions are being asked about a Zimbabwe election report that has gone ‘missing’ from a top South Africa judge’s chambers, with observers calling for the report authors to speak out.
The report was written by judges Sisi Khampepe and Dikgang Moseneke in 2002, after they were sent by then President Thabo Mbeki to report back on the elections in Zimbabwe that year. The report was never released to the public, although Mbeki endorsed the polls as a democratic process.
The elections however were seriously marred by violence and other irregularities, and in 2008 the Mail & Guardian newspaper went to the courts to have the document released. It argued that the evidence contained in the report was of public interest.
That report has now disappeared, a development that has coincided with plans by the Presidency to appeal against an order to release the document to the newspaper.
That order, the latest in a series of rulings confirming the newspaper’s rights to access the document, was made last year by High Court Judge Joseph Raulinga. He is one of the few ‘outsiders’ who has seen the contents of the report after taking a ‘judicial peek’ at the document in 2012. Raulinga ruled that there was enough evidence in the report to show that the electoral process in Zimbabwe in 2002 was neither free nor fair.
Political commentator Clifford Mashiri said Wednesday that the missing document should not delay the legal case to have the details released, saying: “In the age of the internet and computers, surely there will be more than one copy. Someone will have more than one copy.”
Mashiri also echoed calls made by other observers for the report’s authors to speak out.
“The judges could be called on to give a glimpse of what they wrote. The courts have ordered that the document be released, so I don’t see why the judges themselves can’t be interviewed or give their views,” Mashiri said.
Efforts by SW Radio Africa to contact Sisi Khampepe and Mail & Guardian lawyer Dario Milo are ongoing.
COMMENTS
Perhaps the reason for the rumour?! that uncle Bob gave son of the soil Thabo a cut in Todall Platinum to look the other way, after all a retirement package for a president in an honest democracy cant count for much.
Spot on Harry!!
There is NO DOUBT that the report shows that the 2002 election was neither free nor fair. Had it shown that the election was in fact free and fair, the report would have been released at the time. Mbeki made a mistake. He sent honest observers and has no doubt regretted this ever since. It is no secret that Mbeki and Mugabe have family and business connections. They care nothing for freedom of choice or democracy. The Zuma ANC is obviously also complicit in Zimbabweans not been allowed to get rid of the looters that have ruined that country. Old boys club of tyrants. Nothing more nothing less.
It’s as clear as daylight that if the report had confirmed Mbeki’s desire for a free and fair election he would have shouted about it’s contents atop the highest mountain.
Mbeki, you are complicit in the murd of innocent Zimbabweans in subsequent elections because u had the power to stop Mugabe in 2002. Shame on you discredited liar.
If mbeki had children , he couldn’t be cruel
When all this nonsense is over and the culprits in jail, Zimbabweans will no longer tolerate this type of open theft, corruption and wholesale impunity just because one is part of a particular party
Mbeki and Zuma were the first guys to endorce the 2013 election results even though there was evidence of rigging. In 2002 they endorced a similar election process. In 2008 they kept quiet when the election authorities took weeks to anounce the Presidential alection results. As we speak now, the electronic voters roll is not out seven months after the election and they are not talking about it.Bob says uptill now, the MDC and the west don’t know what hit them in July last year, yet he does not want to release the voters roll. The question now is, is South Africa an honest broker in international affairs?
The truth will come out. Believe me!