DAILY NEWS: 1/17/99 9:15:45 AM (GMT +2)
Court Reporter
AGNES Rusike, the leader
of the farm invasions in the Norton area, charged with the theft and damage of
property worth $61 000, was denied bail by a Norton magistrate despite her plea
to be released after she claimed to have repented.
Magistrate Elizabeth
Chaponda dismissed her application, saying Shingi Mutumbwa, Rusike’s lawyer, had
misrepresented facts to the court that he intended to withdraw a bail
application he had made to the High court.
Pleading for forgiveness two
weeks ago, Rusike vowed never to revisit John Wilde’s Parklands Farm where she
allegedly stole cucumbers and burnt
17 hectares of wheat stalk worth $61
000.
Rusike promised to reside at her official residence in Budiriro,
Harare, and said since her incarceration, her health had deteriorated.
Said
Chaponda: “The lawyer thought of a very tricky way to approach the court. This
application was misconceived and sought to mislead the court.”
Chaponda said
Mutumbwa lied to the court that he intended to withdraw a bail application he
made to the High Court when in fact the High Court had already turned down
Rusike’s application.
The High Court rejected the bail application saying
Rusike had a propensity to continue committing similar offences.
In response
to the fresh bail application, prosecutor Fibion Shumba said: “Your worship I
strongly oppose bail because crime seems to be an inborn thing to this woman.
“She has four different records within a month and I do not believe she is
capable of repenting.
“If released she may commit similar offences on the
other farms,” said Shumba.
Shumba argued that it would not be wise for the
same magistrate who had denied her bail in the first place to go back on her
decision.
Chaponda remanded Rusike in custody because she breached her
previous bail conditions which included staying away from Parklands Farm, in
Norton.
The trial date has been set for 25 January.
DAILY NEWS: 1/17/99 9:22:30 AM (GMT +2)
TOBAIWA Mudede, the Registrar-General, has lost a case against 18-year-old Sterling Purser, a Zimbabwean he had denied a passport claiming he had not renounced his British citizenship.Purser, born in Harare in
1982, argued he was a Zimbabwean citizen although his father was a British
citizen at the time of his birth.
He said he had followed the law in
renouncing his foreign citizenship.
But Mudede argued he could not grant
Purser a passport because he had to renounce the foreign citizenship with
British authorities.
He said Purser was Zimbabwean by birth and a British
citizen by descent.
Despite Mudede’s arguments, the Supreme Court had
earlier ruled against him
in an almost similar case against Roby Carr whose
passport had expired.
Mudede had refused to extend Carr’s passport, saying
she must renounce her British citizenship under British law.
But the Supreme
Court ordered Mudede to extend her passport because she had complied with the
requirements of renunciation.
But in the latest case Mudede went on to deny
Purser a passport on the same grounds.
Advocate Adrian de Bourbon,
instructed by Jeremy Callow for Purser, described it as unnecessary litigation.
In July, Purser signed a form of renunciation of foreign citizenship as
required by the law.
But Mudede refused to accept the form, saying it was
invalid.
He insisted Purser should renounce the citizenship with the
British.
De Bourbon said by demanding that Purser renounce his foreign
citizenship with the British, Mudede was seeking something outside the
legislation.
He said: “Mudede, who is merely a government official, cannot
himself become the arbiter of what is and is not the law. The law is clear.
“Provided the renunciation is done in the prescribed manner, it has effect
for the purposes of the law of Zimbabwe of bringing an end to foreign
citizenship.” He said in terms of the law, Purser had properly renounced British
citizenship and was entitled to a passport.
“In view of the attitude adopted
by Mudede who, rather than behaving as a responsible public servant, has taken
it upon himself to ignore the law, it is respectfully submitted that this is an
appropriate case in which Tobaiwa Mudede pay the costs personally for this
unnecessary litigation,” said de Bourbon.
Mudede had argued that Purser’s
renunciation of British citizenship using a Zimbabwean form was invalid and a
waste of time.
He said it was the British who conferred British citizenship,
and were responsible for cancelling it.
“To suggest that the Zimbabwean
authorities could cancel British citizenship is mischievous,” said Mudede.
In his answering affidavit, Purser said Mudede was seeking to misconstrue
the law.
He said the law simply required him to sign the renunciation form.
But Mudede finally conceded in a consent order issued by Justice Yunus
Omerjee in the High Court.
Mudede was given 30 days to issue Purser with a
passport.
Omerjee declared Purser a citizen by birth.
Mudede was ordered
to pay the costs of the application.
In Carr’s case, Mudede was also ordered
to pay costs
Vultures flock to feast on the rich carcass of the Congo as Africa's 'Great War' rumbles on
The heart of darkness was never darker.
President Laurent Kabila, latest in an uninterrupted line of pillagers of a
territory the size of western Europe, is dead. Now the vultures are massing for
the next round of Africa's First World War.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, superimposed on Europe, stretches from
London to Moscow. About 50 million people live among the country's unparalleled
reserves of timber, copper, cobalt, rubber, gold, diamonds and ivory.
Lawlessness rules. The country is a mass of warlord fiefdoms. Six neighbouring
countries are fighting for supremacy as pillager-kings.
The man who shot President Kabila in Kinshasa on Tuesday yesterday remained
more anonymous even than Gavrilo Princip, the Bosnian-Serb nationalist who
killed Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 and set off The Great War.
The consequences of the assassination yesterday at the Marble Palace are as
unpredictable for southern Africa as they were for Europe in 1914.
Cynically, the markets rallied in South Africa. Investors apparently felt the
power vacuum created by Kabila's death could create new opportunities for South
African mining companies that have pulled out of the DRC since the war began two
and a half years ago.
There is little reason to believe the succession – made up entirely of
Kabila's extended family – will be any more intent on implementing the
still-born July 1999 Lusaka peace accords than he was. Besides, doing business
is more lucrative for the few than is peace for the masses. King Leopold II set
the trend in 1885 and Kabila's predecessor, Mobutu Sese Seko, ruled in his
imperial image when Belgian control ended in 1960.
Kabila, a one-time bush-Marxist fought for years against the brutal and
megalomaniac 32-year rule of Marshall Mobutu. But almost as soon as Kabila had
won his prize in 1997, after the death of Mobutu, diplomats realised he had lost
his head in the jungle of savagery and despair which in many ways has not
changed since Joseph Conrad wrote Heart Of Darkness.
Backed in his ascent to power by Rwandan military forces, Kabila was
compromised from the start. When, feeling threatened, he threw them out of the
country in August 1998, they backed rebel groups in the east of the territory.
Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe rallied to President Kabila, claiming this was
crucial to prevent break-up of the DRC.
The international community dithered, the allied military commitment failed
to develop into supremacy and their principles deteriorated into a scramble for
the country's wealth– war for business or, put differently, imperialism.
In return for 2,000 troops, President Sam Nujoma of Namibia got a stake in
the Miba diamond mining company. For its 11,000-strong troop commitment,
Zimbabwe briefly had the management of Gecamines, the DRC state mining company.
The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) signed a deal to double its
import of hydro-electricity. A joint venture between a company formed by the
Zimbabwe military (Osleg) and the DRC's Comiex tried to float the Oryx mining
consortium on the London stock exchange last year.
Angola's motivation is different. It has no more than 2,500 troops in DRC but
its president, Eduardo Dos Santos, is a veritable kingmaker in the region and
able, it is said, to break half a dozen neighbouring governments if he chooses.
President Dos Santos will have a decisive say in decisions this week by
Kabila's family, be it Joseph (son, head of the armed forces and successor if he
is alive), Gäetan Kakudgi (cousin and interior minister), Mwenza Kongolo (cousin
and minister of justice), Col Edy Kapend (cousin and chief of staff), or any of
the other nephews, cousins and brothers-in-law running the government.
The other side – three rebel groups backed principally by Uganda and Rwanda –
are also doing business. The rebels and their allies entered the war on an
ethnic pretext, to create a buffer in Hutu-Tutsi tensions.
But Uganda which backs the Kisangani faction of the Rally for Democracy (RCD)
as well as the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC), has evolved its
strategies with an eye on attainable mineral deposits. Last year Uganda made
nearly as much money from gold exports as from coffee, thus correcting its trade
balance, and despite having hardly any reserves at home.
Many observers say the DRC is a geographical anomaly, too big and too diverse
to survive. Kinshasa is in the far west of a country so neglected few roads have
been built since the first independent leader, Patrice Lumumba, was assassinated
by the communist-fearing West in 1961.
As the war has progressed, anti-Kabila forces have gained the upper hand.
Kinshasa has suffered major setbacks, including the fall of Pwema which prompted
60,000 people, including troops loyal to Kabila, to flee into northern Zambia.
UN statistics about the humanitarian situation in DRC beggar belief, offering
stark proof that either the world does not care about the 50 million people or
the international community is too overwhelmed by the magnitude of the crisis to
impose a drastic solution.
More than 2.2 million civilians are homeless. An entire generation has lost
its right to education, security and health, polio rates have soared 400 per
cent and the UN says hundreds of thousands of people are suffering malnutrition.
Less than 30 per cent of the country's children are at school.
A ceasefire agreement in Lusaka in 1999 was violated by all parties and led
to military positions being frozen without an end to the fighting. Amid futile
southern African attempts to broker peace, the international community has lost
interest and the UN, hindered by Kabila, has not been able to deploy 5,000
peace-keepers agreed in Lusaka. The question for the immediate future is whether
or not the warring parties want peace. Kabila's allies, at least Namibia and
Zimbabwe, want out, because their business deals have not proved as lucrative as
expected. But the rebels and their backers, Uganda and Rwanda, have the upper
hand militarily and will not settle for anything less than a buffer zone they
can control in eastern Congo.
It is down to the diplomats, in southern Africa and in New York, Washington,
London, Paris and Brussels. They face a challenge equal to any that has faced
the world on the brink of a major war.
From The Independent (UK), 18 January
Kabila body flown to Zimbabwe while allies try to avert collapse into anarchy
Harare - The body of President Laurent Kabila lay in a military hospital in the Zimbabwean capital last night, despite vehement claims by his officials that he was still alive, although critically wounded. Senior military sources in Harare said the President of the DRC died on a plane while being flown to the city for treatment. He had been shot and seriously wounded in his Marble Palace in Kinshasa on Tuesday night, allegedly by one of his bodyguards, who was killed while trying to escape. Congolese state radio also claimed Mr Kabila was alive, but observers believe authorities in Harare were delaying an official announcement of his death to prevent the DRC collapsing into anarchy.
Zimbabwe's Minister of Defence, Moven Mahachi, who first claimed the President was dead, was forced to change his story while awaiting the return of the Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, from a Franco-African summit. With 12,000 troops, a third of its entire army, deployed in Congo, Zimbabwe has been President Kabila's main ally in the civil war that has torn apart one of Africa's biggest and potentially richest countries. "We won't abandon the people of the DRC in this great moment of need ... we will press ahead with our mission to repel the invaders [Uganda and Rwanda]," Mr Mahachi said.
Last night Kinshasa was calm, after a holiday in honour of Patrice Lumumba, the independence leader murdered in 1961. Only patrolling army vehicles were on the streets, where small groups of people were discussing foreign radio reports, the main source of news on Tuesday's events. But confusion continued as government officials confirmed that Mr Kabila's son Joseph had assumed power, while continuing to insist that the President was still alive - wounded but not killed in the gun battle at the presidential palace. That could be an attempt by Major-General Joseph Kabila to buy time while the army is reorganised. No one seems to know whether Joseph, who was said to have lost the confidence of his father, is a stop-gap ruler or designated successor.
President Kabila, who toppled the former dictator Sese Seko Mobutu in 1997, is believed to have fallen victim to a dispute with his top army commanders. The President had threatened to purge them after a successful rebel advance in southern Congo last month. Officials in Belgium, the Congo's former colonial power, claimed the President was killed while meeting a group of army generals he had dismissed. The Foreign Minister, Louis Michel, said: "We can't confirm it was a coup; we don't know what it was." In Kinshasa, meanwhile, Dominique Sakombi, the Information Minister, said the bodyguard who shot Mr Kabila at point-blank range had been killed as he tried to escape.
From The Times (UK), 18 January
Mugabe stares disaster in face
Harare - The attack on President Kabila has left President Mugabe, his indispensable ally, staring at the shattered remains of a military and economic disaster. When Mr Mugabe ignored Parliament and ordered the military into the DRC, it was to destroy bands of barefoot Tutsi rebels in a few weeks. Almost 30 months later, his Air Force is effectively grounded for a lack of spares and the 12,000 Zimbabwean troops in the Congo are low on supplies and vulnerable to the unstable situation in Kinshasa. The Government in Harare declared yesterday that it did not regard Mr Kabila's death as a chance to withdraw. "Our soldiers are not being withdrawn," Moven Mahachi, the Defence Minister said. "The people of the DRC want us more now." Michael Quintana, Editor of the Harare-based African Defence Journal, said: "The Government will do everything it can to influence events in Kinshasa. (But) if an anti-Kabila regime emerges, Zimbabwe is in for trouble." The military operation, at £21 million a month, has been a huge drain on the Zimbabwean economy.
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 18 January
Kabila is gone but diamonds are forever
Harare - Laurent Kabila's gleaming white presidential jet stood parked at Harare Airport in Zimbabwe last night, proof that in his last moments the DRC's leader had flown towards the safety offered by his closest ally. The Boeing 707 was next to the Manyame military terminal, surrounded by the Zimbabwean air force aircraft that had kept him in power. From the moment that war began in August 1998, Zimbabwean military muscle was crucial in repelling the Congolese rebellion. During the climactic days when the rebel alliance attacked Kinshasa and seemed on the brink of success, Zimbabwean special forces landed on the roof of the presidential palace and spirited Mr Kabila to safety while others cleared the capital of insurgents.
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe joined Angola and Namibia in sending thousands of troops to rescue Mr Kabila. Mr Mugabe sent more soldiers than anyone else and by July 1999, 11,000 Zimbabweans were fighting in Congo. He had become de facto leader of the "allied forces" backing Mr Kabila. Although economists believe that the war costs Zimbabwe around £700,000 a day, Mr Mugabe publicly referred to Mr Kabila as "my brother". His support never wavered and he called Uganda and Rwanda, supporters of the rebels, "aggressors and thieves". Zimbabwean ministers were quick to rule out a withdrawal from Congo in the wake of Mr Kabila's killing. Moven Mahachi, Defence Minister, said: "Zimbabwe will continue to help the people of the Congo even more so under these circumstances. We won't abandon them at this critical hour."
Mr Kabila also received backing from Angola, which has the most powerful army in central Africa. President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos joined the coalition backing Mr Kabila to eliminate Unita rebels based in remote areas of western Congo. Angola sent at least 5,000 troops to Kinshasa and to ensure that Unita's supply lines were closed, but as the civil war flared again in 1999, it withdrew most to cope with rebel attacks at home. By last year fewer than 2,000 Angolan troops remained in Congo and their alliance with Mr Kabila was increasingly strained. In the last few months, Mr Kabila's real allies were Namibia, which has 2,000 troops in the Congo, and Zimbabwe. Namibia said yesterday: "The Namibian government is closely monitoring the situation . . . our troops remain in their defensive positions."
Zimbabwe's motive has been the same as that of all those who have intervened in the vast, mineral-rich country, the dream of plundering its wealth. In return for keeping Mr Kabila in power, Zimbabwe sought endless commercial concessions. Mr Kabila rewarded his chief rescuer with most of the diamond mines around the town of Mbuji-Mayi. The Zimbabwean army set up a company called Osleg to exploit them and formed an alliance with Oryx, a diamond company refused a listing on the London Stock Exchange last year. Senior officers scrambled for a share. Lt-Gen Vitalis Zvinavashe, commander of the Zimbabwean Defence Force, became a director of Osleg, alongside Job Whabira, then permanent secretary at the Defence Ministry.
Gecamines, Congo's bankrupt state mining company, was briefly placed under Billy Rautenbach, a Zimbabwean linked to Mr Mugabe's government. Emmerson Mnangagwa, now Speaker of Parliament, became the chief deal broker, charged with turning the Congo war into a money-maker. As Zimbabwe's economic crisis deepened, Mr Mugabe tried to use his favoured position in the Congo to rescue his domestic position. He avoided black-outs in Harare by importing electricity from the Inga dam, near Kinshasa, paid for in the nearly worthless Zimbabwe dollar. With so many senior figures benefiting from the war it is almost impossible for Mr Mugabe to withdraw. Indeed, his pride would not allow him to do so, regardless of the vested interests.
Observers believe that Zimbabwe's priority will be to ensure the emergence of a pliant successor to Mr Kabila. Then the deals and the money will continue to flow. With 11,000 troops on the ground, Mr Mugabe could now become the chief power broker determining the Congo's future. Once again, the vast country is in the hands of foreigners.
From The Independent (UK), 18 January
Vultures flock to feast on the rich carcass of the Congo as Africa's 'Great War' rumbles on
The heart of darkness was never darker. President Laurent Kabila, latest in an uninterrupted line of pillagers of a territory the size of western Europe, is dead. Now the vultures are massing for the next round of Africa's First World War.
The DRC, superimposed on Europe, stretches from London to Moscow. About 50 million people live among the country's unparalleled reserves of timber, copper, cobalt, rubber, gold, diamonds and ivory. Lawlessness rules. The country is a mass of warlord fiefdoms. Six neighbouring countries are fighting for supremacy as pillager-kings. The man who shot President Kabila in Kinshasa on Tuesday yesterday remained more anonymous even than Gavrilo Princip, the Bosnian-Serb nationalist who killed Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 and set off The Great War. The consequences of the assassination yesterday at the Marble Palace are as unpredictable for southern Africa as they were for Europe in 1914.
Cynically, the markets rallied in South Africa. Investors apparently felt the power vacuum created by Kabila's death could create new opportunities for South African mining companies that have pulled out of the DRC since the war began two and a half years ago. There is little reason to believe the succession - made up entirely of Kabila's extended family - will be any more intent on implementing the still-born July 1999 Lusaka peace accords than he was. Besides, doing business is more lucrative for the few than is peace for the masses. King Leopold II set the trend in 1885 and Kabila's predecessor, Mobutu Sese Seko, ruled in his imperial image when Belgian control ended in 1960.
Kabila, a one-time bush-Marxist fought for years against the brutal and megalomaniac 32-year rule of Marshall Mobutu. But almost as soon as Kabila had won his prize in 1997, after the death of Mobutu, diplomats realised he had lost his head in the jungle of savagery and despair which in many ways has not changed since Joseph Conrad wrote Heart Of Darkness. Backed in his ascent to power by Rwandan military forces, Kabila was compromised from the start. When, feeling threatened, he threw them out of the country in August 1998, they backed rebel groups in the east of the territory. Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe rallied to President Kabila, claiming this was crucial to prevent the break-up of the DRC.
The international community dithered, the allied military commitment failed to develop into supremacy and their principles deteriorated into a scramble for the country's wealth - war for business or, put differently, imperialism. In return for 2,000 troops, President Sam Nujoma of Namibia got a stake in the Miba diamond mining company. For its 11,000-strong troop commitment, Zimbabwe briefly had the management of Gecamines, the DRC state mining company. The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) signed a deal to double its import of hydro-electricity. A joint venture between a company formed by the Zimbabwe military (Osleg) and the DRC's Comiex tried to float the Oryx mining consortium on the London stock exchange last year.
Angola's motivation is different. It has no more than 2,500 troops in DRC but its president, Eduardo Dos Santos, is a veritable kingmaker in the region and able, it is said, to break half a dozen neighbouring governments if he chooses. President Dos Santos will have a decisive say in decisions this week by Kabila's family, be it Joseph (son, head of the armed forces and successor if he is alive), Getan Kakudgi (cousin and interior minister), Mwenza Kongolo (cousin and minister of justice), Col Edy Kapend (cousin and chief of staff), or any of the other nephews, cousins and brothers-in-law running the government.
The other side - three rebel groups backed principally by Uganda and Rwanda - are also doing business. The rebels and their allies entered the war on an ethnic pretext, to create a buffer in Hutu-Tutsi tensions. But Uganda which backs the Kisangani faction of the Rally for Democracy (RCD) as well as the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC), has evolved its strategies with an eye on attainable mineral deposits. Last year Uganda made nearly as much money from gold exports as from coffee, thus correcting its trade balance, and despite having hardly any reserves at home.
Many observers say the DRC is a geographical anomaly, too big and too diverse to survive. Kinshasa is in the far west of a country so neglected few roads have been built since the first independent leader, Patrice Lumumba, was assassinated by the communist-fearing West in 1961. As the war has progressed, anti-Kabila forces have gained the upper hand. Kinshasa has suffered major setbacks, including the fall of Pwema which prompted 60,000 people, including troops loyal to Kabila, to flee into northern Zambia. UN statistics about the humanitarian situation in DRC beggar belief, offering stark proof that either the world does not care about the 50 million people or the international community is too overwhelmed by the magnitude of the crisis to impose a drastic solution. More than 2.2 million civilians are homeless. An entire generation has lost its right to education, security and health, polio rates have soared 400 per cent and the UN says hundreds of thousands of people are suffering malnutrition. Less than 30 per cent of the country's children are at school.
A ceasefire agreement in Lusaka in 1999 was violated by all parties and led to military positions being frozen without an end to the fighting. Amid futile southern African attempts to broker peace, the international community has lost interest and the UN, hindered by Kabila, has not been able to deploy 5,000 peace-keepers agreed in Lusaka. The question for the immediate future is whether or not the warring parties want peace. Kabila's allies, at least Namibia and Zimbabwe, want out, because their business deals have not proved as lucrative as expected. But the rebels and their backers, Uganda and Rwanda, have the upper hand militarily and will not settle for anything less than a buffer zone they can control in eastern Congo. It is down to the diplomats, in southern Africa and in New York, Washington, London, Paris and Brussels. They face a challenge equal to any that has faced the world on the brink of a major war.
From The Financial Gazette, 18 January
Zim's hands tied in DRC
Zimbabwe, the anchor of Congo's fight against rebels, will be unable immediately to extricate its army from the central African nation, analysts said yesterday, citing immense tactical problems and the huge financial outlay required to pull out the estimated 11 000 troops stationed there. The most workable option for Zimbabwe would be to remain in the theatre of war to use its military supremacy to influence the choice of who eventually takes over command of the DRC after Laurent Kabila's murder this week. The government could also use its army to help keep the DRC army and government intact and pave the way for a successor to rise from within Kabila's government, political and military analysts said.
They spoke as Kabila's son Joseph assumed what appeared to be temporary control of Africa's third largest country after a crisis meeting of the government earlier yesterday. But the analysts were quick to point out that even this option would not be without its difficulties and complexities for the Zimbabwe government, whose military intervention in the DRC has been costing it at least US$1 million a month in the past two years. "Those who killed Kabila were certainly opposed to his policies and would be opposed to the continued influence of his key ally Zimbabwe," Alfred Nhema, a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, told the Financial Gazette.
The future course of the DRC would now depend on how well organised and strong the faction that had killed Kabila was, Nhema said, noting that a well organised group could escalate that country's conflict. Molina Kuchena, a lecturer at UZ's department of war and defence studies, said the death of Kabila could see an intensification of the two-year civil war or even a break-up of the DRC. "There is no doubt that there is uncertainty within the Congolese themselves and within the Zimbabwe army and its SADC allies," Kuchena said. "The uncertainty could erupt in renewed fighting as those who killed Kabila try to gain control of the country. In fact, the whole country could break up with warlordism taking over," he said.
But Kuchena concurred with Nhema that Zimbabwe had no option at the moment but to remain in the DRC "now dubbed Africa's first world war" at least for now. "Withdrawing now would be a strategic blunder and militarily it would be a huge embarrassment which no government could easily take," Kuchena said in an interview. Pulling the troops out at short notice would also require huge and prohibitive financial resources which Zimbabwe does not have, Kuchena noted.
Zimbabwe, partly because of its intervention in the DRC, is in the midst of its worst economic crisis in two decades that has dangerously raised social and political tensions among its increasingly impoverished 12,5 million people. Kuchena said Zimbabwe and its allies Angola and Namibia were concerned that their withdrawal from the DRC could result in the rise into power in Kinshasa of a government allied to Angola's UNITA rebels. "A safe base for UNITA will mean an escalation of its destabilisation efforts not only in Angola itself but also in northern Namibia," Kuchena said.
Kabila seized power from dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in December 1997 after waging a guerrilla war backed by Uganda and Rwanda. Well received by most in the international community for overthrowing the corrupt Mobutu, Kabila was soon to be reviled in and outside the DRC for perpetuating the tyranny of his predecessor. His 1997 war-time allies Uganda and Rwanda also deserted him, throwing their support behind insurgents who had catapulated Kabila into power in the first place. Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola raced to aid the beleaguered leader, with Zimbabwe deploying a third of its army, Namibia 2 000 troops and Angola an unspecified number of soldiers. An initiative lead by Zambia's President Frederick Chiluba to bring peace to the DRC has faltered repeatedly despite a truce being signed by the combatants 18 months ago.
Nhema said all was not yet lost for Zimbabwe and its allies if they could use their influential role to influence the successor to Kabila to pursue the peace process. "But in pursuing the peace process, both the allies and whoever takes over in Kinshasa must accept that the security concerns of both Rwanda and Uganda have to be addressed and that a truly democratic process culminating in democratic elections in the DRC takes place," said Nhema, head of UZ's political science department.
ZANU(PF)'S PYRRHIC VICTORY IN BIKITA WEST
- From the desk of David Coltart
The by-election victory this past weekend by ZANU(PF) in the Bikita West Constituency by some 12900 votes to the MDC's 7000 has been followed by the inevitable bluster and propaganda. It has been hailed by luminaries like Jonathan Moyo, Border Gezi and Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi as the forerunner for a victory in the Presidential election by Mugabe/Mnangagwa or whoever stands for ZANU(PF) against the MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai. Even some western journalists stated in the run up to this by-election that victory was absolutely critical for both parties.
Whilst ZANU(PF)'s propaganda is understandable can one say objectively that victory per se was critically important to both parties?But Muzenda, as well as the rest of the ZANU(PF), knew that they would not
only have to win, but win big, for reasons I will explain later. Hence the
expression of hope that there would be huge majority. Hence the news conveyed by
the ZBC on the close of the poll on the first day, Saturday evening, that 20000
people had already voted (which as things turned out must have been false as the
final figure after two days of polling only came to that figure). ZANU(PF) were
hoping for a turnout of in excess of 30000 people. They had planned to get
village by village to vote. They hoped that every last villager would be
compelled to go and vote. But why this frantic desire to win big?
There
are two reasons aside from the obvious one that all political parties like to
secure as many votes as possible.
Morgan Tsvangirayi only needs to get one vote more than Mugabe to win the election and that one vote can come from anywhere in Zimbabwe. In the June 2000 general election ZANU(PF) only secured 48% of the vote countrywide; the combined opposition vote was 52%. So already they know that they have to find further numbers of votes from some areas. The problem for them is greatly compounded by the fact that Mugabe will not even get the same number of votes his ZANU(PF) candidates got in certain areas because of his personal unpopularity and the relative personal popularity of the ZANU(PF) candidates. For example Dumiso Dabengwa still enjoys some personal popularity and so a few thousand people voted for him because of their personal respect for him in Nkulumane constituency. But those same people will not vote for Mugabe in the Presidential elections because of the horrific associations they have with him from the early 1980s when Dabengwa was actually detained by Mugabe. That fact was clearly shown in the last Presidential elections in 1996 when only 13% of those eligible to vote in Bulawayo voted for Mugabe!
Those people won't necessarily vote for Morgan Tsvangirayi but even if they
don't vote at all that will be less votes for Mugabe than ZANU(PF) itself
obtained in June. I remember monitoring the Kenyan election in 1992; there were
areas in the east of Kenya where Moi did not secure a single vote. The same
could well occur in parts of Matabeleland. And this problem is not just confined
to Matabeleland; it also occurs elsewhere: many people respect Zvobgo and
ZANU(PF), the party, in Masvingo Province but they don't particularly like
Mugabe or Mnangagwa for that matter. And every vote counts.
Accordingly
it was critically important for ZANU(PF) to win big in Bikita West to be able to
supersede the deficits they know they will incur in the cities and other areas.
This was a critical experiment for ZANU(PF) for they know that Mugabe can only
win the election if they manage to turn the vote out in their favour in large
numbers in their rural heartlands. It is equally critical to ensure that they
intimidate rural supporters of the MDC not to vote at all. It comes down to
simple mathematics: can they get sufficient numbers out in the rural areas of
Mashonaland and lessen the MDC support in those areas to offset the massive
majorities Morgan Tsvangirayi will secure in the urban areas, Matabeleland and
Manicaland?
It is in this context that ZANU(PF)'s victory in Bikita West is
Pyrrhic. Despite the deployment of storm troopers, despite the Border Gezi
money, despite the use of the Chiefs to get every villager out, despite the
massive intimidation
Our job is to ensure that they are all registered and soon.
Soon it
must be because the Presidential election is just round the corner. In terms of
Section 29 of the Constitution the Presidential term of office is 6 years.
General Notice 143 of 1996 decreed that Mugabe's term of office commenced on the
entirely appropriate day of April 1, 1996. His term expires on midnight on the
31st March 2001. However Section 28(3) of the Constitution (which cannot now be
changed of course) states that
In other words the Presidential election must be held sometime between the
1st January 2002 and 31st March 2002, possibly less than 12 months away! And I
repeat that in terms of our law the person with the majority of votes cast shall
be President ...even if that majority is only one vote!
But most importantly from tomorrow start to work tirelessly to ensure that every eligible voter is registered to vote as soon as possible. The right to vote is a Constitutional right that cannot be taken away by ZANU(PF) but which can also be squandered if Zimbabweans do not fully appreciate that every vote counts.
Your vote, or your apathetic neighbour's vote, could be the one that ensures that Morgan Tsvangirayi is elected President of ZimbabweDavid Coltart
16th January 2001
LAURENT KABILA had few friends. Many people, including some of his supposed allies, wanted Congo’s ruler out of the way, and a coup was not unexpected. Instead, one of his own soldiers is said to have shot him on January 16th, in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital. For a couple of days the ultra-cautious Congolese authorities held back from admitting his death, merely saying that he had been wounded. Other reports said he had been flown to Zimbabwe for medical treatment, but had died there. Eventually, Congo’s Ministry of Information, gathering its courage, announced that his body would return to Kinshasa on January 21st, and would be buried two days later.
As rumour dribbled out in Kinshasa, there was no outpouring of grief or joy for the departure of a leader the Congolese had welcomed so enthusiastically in 1997. He and his rebel movement, supported by Rwanda and Uganda, had marched across the country and chased out Mobutu Sese Seko, who had misruled the country for 30 years. Mr Kabila was welcomed because he was not Mobutu. It seemed possible that Congo would no longer be the personal estate of one man, and become at last a more conventional country.
The Congolese were disappointed. Though Mr Kabila made one or two improvements—for a while border officials stopped treating foreign visitors as piranhas treat meat—he imitated Mobutu, without the latter’s finesse. He brought in as ministers an odd assortment of incompetent relations and hangers-on. An old Maoist, he feared that the West wanted to recolonise Congo and steal its vast mineral wealth. He spurned the World Bank and the IMF. When mining companies and other investors rushed to Kinshasa to seek deals, he tried to play them off against each other. He broke agreements on a whim, relying on private bargains and connections. Offers of aid and investment were withdrawn; the economy languished.
Politically, Mr Kabila was a petty tyrant who could not work with others. He quickly turned against his allies, Uganda and Rwanda, and in 1998 they launched a new rebellion against him. This was stalled when Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia stepped in to support him. A peace agreement was signed in Lusaka in 1999, but never implemented. The war continued at a low level, with everyone breaking the Lusaka deal.
The neighbouring countries all had their own separate reasons for intervening in the war. Rwanda said it was there to protect its borders from invasion by soldiers and militiamen of the former Rwandan regime that had carried out the 1994 genocide. Angola wanted to stop Congo being used as a rear base for its own rebels. Zimbabwe said it was there on principle to counteract the invasion by Uganda and Rwanda. But all the intruders were drawn by Congo’s wealth.
Intervening in Congo cost the meddlers a lot of money. But a number of individuals, often close to the seat of government, became very rich. Rulers had to weigh the cost to their reputations and their treasuries, and the impossibility of victory, against personal profit and pride. No one wanted to be seen to back down. Neighbouring governments did not want to go on fighting each other, but none of them wanted to withdraw without a political solution that served their interests.
Increasingly, Mr Kabila’s duplicity and intransigence were seen by all as the chief obstacle to any such agreement. He infuriated his allies with his arbitrary decisions and devious ways. He refused to countenance either African peace monitors or UN observers in the country. He rebuffed Ketumile Masire, a former president of Botswana, who had been chosen to supervise political talks between government and rebels. His incompetence was further shown up last year when he failed to exploit the break-up of the rebel movement into three factions. His old-fashioned attempts to control the economy made him deeply unpopular in the capital; indeed, he had little support outside his home region in Congo’s south-east.
Angola, a power broker in the region and one of Mr Kabila’s two main allies, grew exasperated with him. Senior Angolan officials recently admitted they would like to be rid of him, but could not find a replacement. Angola will certainly want a say in the new regime. His remaining friend was Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president, who had sent 12,000 troops to defend him, and who may have been involved, at the very end, in trying to save his life. But the war is deeply unpopular in Zimbabwe, where the economy collapses by the day.
Mr Kabila’s sudden departure leaves huge uncertainty. None of the people around him appears capable of running the country. The government is said to have met in special session and put his eldest son, Major-General Joseph Kabila, in charge. The army is demoralised: regular officers have been purged and three were arrested last week. But, at least in the short term, a new military ruler looks to be the likely outcome.
The tragedy of Congo, the key to political stability and economic development in central Africa, is that its rulers since independence in 1960 have been so concerned to hold it together that they have paid no attention to developing it either politically or economically. Congo is so rich, and yet so weak, that outsiders have always been tempted to interfere. The Congolese have never been allowed to come together, agree on a constitution or elect a government, yet they remain stubbornly nationalistic in a state that disappeared in all but name decades ago.
From The Guardian (UK), 19 January
Congo admits at last that Kabila is dead
The government of the DRC finally dropped the fiction yesterday that Laurent Kabila was still alive and confirmed that he was killed by an assassin on Tuesday. The government in Kinshasa officially informed other African states that Mr Kabila had been murdered by one of his own military officers but gave no explanation as to why it had lied for two days about the president's fate. Diplomats believe that the authorities wanted to ensure that the assassinated ruler's son, Joseph Kabila, was firmly installed as Congo's new leader before confirming the killing. Officials had continued to deny his death even though foreign governments said they were certain of it and Zimbabwe's defence minister, Moven Mahachi, announced that the corpse was lying in a Harare morgue. Mr Mahachi said the assassinated president died on a flight to Zimbabwe after doctors were unable to save him in Kinshasa.
Joseph Kabila, 31, who is head of land forces in the war against Rwandan and Ugandan-backed rebels, was expected to broadcast a message last night to the Congolese people, who are the last to be told officially of the demise of their president. The message was also likely to be an appeal for support. The new leader commands little support among the Congolese people who generally did not like his father and are suspicious of the son's relative youth and the manner of his coming to power. Neither is he particularly respected in the military he commands, as a result of both his lack of experience and his notorious brutality. But Joseph Kabila presumably succeeded his father with the blessing of Zimbabwe and Angola, Congo's two principal backers in the war.
Rebels yesterday called on the new president to seize the opportunity presented by his father's death to end the civil war. The main rebel group, the Congolese Rally for Democracy, pledged that it would not take military advantage of Laurent Kabila's assassination but said it would keep fighting if the country's new leader did not begin to implement the Lusaka peace accords his father had blocked. "It is a pity to see Kabila's son the head of state. We are not a monarchy," said a rebel spokesman, Kin-Kiey Mulumba. "But we hope he is going to accept the peace accord. If not, we will continue to defend ourselves."
To the ire of some of his allies who are keen to end the war, Laurent Kabila had stalled the implementation of the 1999 peace deal, which provides for UN peacekeepers to monitor a ceasefire during talks on powersharing. Laurent Kabila's body is expected to be flown back to Congo at the weekend amid conflicting reports about plans for his burial. Government officials said there will be a state funeral in Kinshasa on Tuesday. But preparations are also apparently under way for Mr Kabila's burial in his home province of Katanga.
From The Times (UK), 19 January
Brothel-keeper who rose on a tide of blood and diamonds
Sam Kiley traces the rise and fall of the revolutionary dismissed by Che Guevara as a roué
A roly-poly revolutionary who preferred beer and brothels to Marxist salons, Laurent Kabila became President by accident. The journey took him from jungle obscurity to untold wealth and violent death. He sowed the seeds of his destruction the moment he took power, and yesterday his body lay in a Zimbabwean morgue after being flown to Harare in his presidential jet.
I first met Laurent Kabila four years ago at Uvira, on the northern shores of Lake Tanganyika, in a small bungalow that served as headquarters of a guerrilla coalition he led. His bodyguard was a toothless pygmy clutching a rusted rifle who grinned with pride whenever he got a chance to present arms. Sitting on a plastic-covered sofa was the rotund man with a head twice the size of a bowling ball who presented himself as "The Liberator". Kabila said that he would lead his rebels against Zaire's President Mobutu Sese Seko, the tyrant and kleptocrat. He would rid Africa of the last of the big men who had made a travesty of independence.
But he was soon to become a parody of Mobutu, President Amin of Uganda and President Bokassa of the Central African Republic - the original big men who were Africa's disastrous rulers. Within two years Kabila had renamed Zaire the Democratic Republic of Congo and it became a Grand Guignol of horror. At least six countries were engaged in war there and the nation attracted the worst of the international criminal fraternity and carpetbaggers bent on plunder.
How did a man with such limited attributes as Kabila, whose previous administrative experience had been running a failed 1960s rebel movement and a brothel, become President of a country the size of Western Europe and with the mineral wealth of Russia? When we met Kabila was a frontman for a largely bogus "rebellion" in eastern Zaire, which had been invaded by Rwandans and Ugandans trying to destroy Hutu extremists. Other groups also used the lawless eastern frontier as a base to attack their nations. As the Rwandan Tutsi-led front against Hutus advanced, Mobutu's invincibility evaporated. By May 1997 Mobutu fled, and the Tutsis from tiny Rwanda needed a viceroy to lead their vast neighbour.
"We knew he was an idiot. In fact, we relied on his stupidity. That was our mistake," a member of Rwanda's military intelligence told me. Kabila was installed at Camp Tchachi, the Mobutu-era palace, and surrounded by Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers, as well as Calvinistic Tutsi "advisers". They were supposed to run things for him while he led national reconciliation campaigns. In the surrounding jungle, meanwhile, 200,000 Hutus were killed by the Tutsis who had installed him. Kabila neither knew nor cared what went on in the jungle. He also showed no interest in sending his army against the Hutus who remained a threat to Rwanda. His minders hoped he would stay out of the way.
But they underestimated his stupidity, his temper, and the temptations that come with running a country grotesquely over-endowed with precious raw materials, among them 40 per cent of the world's cobalt, besides diamonds, oil, bauxite, copper and gold. Kabila was seduced by multinational corporations involved in the second great scramble for Africa in a century. They rushed to get his signature on mining contracts. Within a year, he tore up most of the contracts and demanded companies pay upfront for decades of future profits. Even the crooks left, incredulous.
In 1998 Kabila's Tutsi minders tried to oust him in a coup, but he was saved by the intervention of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Angola stepped in to prevent Jonas Savimbi's Unita rebel movement from using the Congo as a base; the others, because they wanted to get their hands on the booty. Rwanda and Uganda lined up against them, and the biggest international conflict broke out. It rages on, and Kinshasa, the capital, is almost cut off from the rest of the country, which fractured into lawless areas while Kabila sat, baffled, in his palace. Now his son Joseph, 32, has inherited the job of piecing it together. He has an uphill struggle as his mother is a Tutsi, now seen as an enemy. He was born and raised in Tanzania and has never shown much interest in running a country fast returning, literally, to the jungle.
From The Guardian (UK), 19 January
A son with no shining qualities
Joseph Kabila Mulubakat, 31, is not the youngest military ruler to come to power in Africa. But he is the first African ruler to succeed his father, other than in the smattering of monarchies on the continent. And the large numbers of other members of the Kabila family in positions of power suggests a quasi dynasty in the making. Laurent Kabila made one cousin his home affairs minister and another the minister of justice. A third was his chief military aide and a brother-in-law was inspector general of police. Nephews were given high military posts, and other relatives permeate a system whose only purpose was to keep Kabila as president of Congo.
Now it falls to his son to keep the family in control. And it is not only his youth that counts against him. He spent so much of his life outside the country's borders, mostly in Tanzania, that he hardly speaks French, Congo's official language, or Lingala, the most widely spoken language in Kinshasa. To add to the suspicion, Joseph has a Tutsi mother. To many Congolese that makes him a foreigner. Laurent Kabila was not noted for his intellect or leadership qualities, but he is said to have shone brightly beside his son, who has come to believe he is a great military commander, despite an experience limited to three months of training with the Beijing military academy.
Joseph has even been publicly derided by some of the soldiers he supposedly commanded. A day or two after the Rwandans and Ugandans marched into the southern Congolese city of Lubumbashi four years ago, on their way to overthrowing Mobutu Sese Seko, the younger Kabila turned up to claim credit for the victory. He was, ostensibly, his father's military chief and so technically in charge of the rebel forces on the ground. It was a nonsense made clear by a Ugandan officer who publicly derided him as the "little chief". But that did not stop his father making him commander of land forces in the present war, to the disgust of the few real soldiers. But whatever Joseph's limitations, he has inherited his father's acumen for deals. He has made a lot of money in business with one of the relatives of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.
From The Independent (UK), 19 January
Drive to defeat rebels brought disaster in wake
It is too early to know why President Laurent Kabila was killed. But one thing is for sure: the writing was on the wall long before last Christmas and it was writ large in his own men's blood. A drive to capture rebel territory at the southern end of the 1,400-mile front line in October backfired into an unmitigated disaster. Not only did Mr Kabila's army fail to win ground but it suffered a painful defeat at Pweto, an important supply town on Lake Tanganyika.
More than 3,000 Congolese troops fled over the border into Zambia. There were even reports that fleeing Congolese troops were ordered to shoot dead wounded comrades as the government could not afford to fly them home. The Rwandan victors found dozens of armoured vehicles, a tank half-sunk in the river and three large arms dumps. The commander in charge of the debacle went in such a hurry that he left a working helicopter behind. His name was Joseph Kabila - the man thrust on to a fragile perch atop the besieged Kinshasa government this week.
The most credible version of Tuesday's shooting is that a senior officer, Colonel Dieudonne Kayembe, pulled a gun on Mr Kabila and son when they tried to fire him. The row was probably sparked by Mr Kabila's disastrous management of his country and the war. Now, with the likelihood of a power struggle in Kinshasa, a lame-duck regime could see the country enter a new, bloody phase of the two-year war. The rebels have never been better placed to force a settlement, either diplomatically or militarily.
Jean-Pierre Bemba, the Ugandan-backed rebel leader, merged with a rival faction earlier this week. Although his father was an acolyte of the hated former dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, Mr Bemba is the only rebel leader with the respect of ordinary Congolese. His forces are near Mbandaka, a town near the confluence of the Congo and Ubangui rivers. If it were taken, they could descend on Kinshasa by boat within three days. In the east,Rwanda may look to purge the Interahamwe, the Hutu militia that led the 1994 genocide in the country and hides across the border in the DRC. Mr Kabila's support for the Interahamwe prompted Rwanda to kick-start the war in 1998. His departure may give Rwanda a chance to deal with the unfinished business of 1994.
Joseph Kabila, 31, will be under great pressure in the coming weeks. However, he can look to Angola - a country with the firepower and oil dollars to prop up Kinshasa, in the short term at least. But Angola is angry with the Kabilas for not keeping their side of the bargain: cutting supply lines to their own rebels, Unita, which uses the DRC as a back base. If the rebels spurn peace talks and choose to push their advantage home, Joseph Kabila - or his successor - will undoubtedly have to cling tightly to their Angolan friends or risk losing the war entirely.
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 19 January 2001
Congo finally admits to the world: Kabila is dead
The Congolese authorities last night finally admitted that President Laurent Kabila was dead, as it was reported that preparations had begun for an elaborate funeral and his successors sought to consolidate their control. After two days of official denials, a government spokesman went on television to announce Mr Kabila's death following his shooting by a bodyguard in the presidential palace in Kinshasa.
Local dignitaries in his home town, Lubumbashi, in Katanga province, were told to prepare a lavish, three-day service to mark the passing of a man known locally by the affectionate Swahili term Mzee, meaning Grand Old Man. Sources close to his successors said that he would be buried on Tuesday. Regional diplomats suggested that the silence had been a ploy to buy time for the new regime, which is to be led by Mr Kabila's son, Joseph, an army general.
Mr Kabila's body is believed to be in a military mortuary in Zimbabwe, his greatest regional backer, after he was flown there dead or dying on Tuesday. On the streets of Kinshasa, people began to emerge after two days in hiding as some semblance of normality returned. People had stayed at home since the incident on Tuesday when Mr Kabila was reported to have been shot as he dismissed generals whom he blamed for setbacks in the country's civil war. There were unconfirmed reports yesterday that the security forces were carrying out a detailed sweep of the homes of all presidential bodyguards. Several were reported to have been arrested.
Gen Kabila, who is not credited with the political finesse and ruthlessness of his father, was busy meeting senior diplomats from important African nations yesterday to establish his credentials as leader. The crucial question was the extent to which he controls the country's armed forces. While nominally their commander in chief, he faces potential opposition from other senior officers. His most important job as he prepares to take full control of the country is to buy off rival generals with suitably lavish positions.
Government officials in Zimbabwe, Kabila's main ally in a two-year war against foreign-backed rebels, said they would make a statement on Mr Kabila only after they had been briefed by the Congo government. President Robert Mugabe left a Franco-African summit early and returned to Zimbabwe yesterday. Mr Kabila's white presidential jet stood on the tarmac at Manyame air force base, opposite Harare airport. The military base is equipped with a mortuary and observers believe that Mr Kabila's corpse is being stored there. Some members of his immediate family are thought to have flown with the wounded president in a Boeing 707 to Harare. They are now believed to be in government housing in the exclusive Harare suburb of Gun Hill, where Mengistu Haile Mariam, the former Ethiopian dictator, has been given sanctuary.
The Zimbabwean government is quietly shifting its loyalty from Mr Kabila to the new regime in Congo. Didymus Mutasa, the politburo's secretary for external affairs, said: "It is not Kabila whom we are supporting, it is the people of Congo. We will continue to support them. If the situation requires us to become more deeply involved, we will do so." Professor Jonathan Moyo, the Information Minister, said: "As far as we are aware, the institutions of government in the Congo remain intact, stable and functioning."
Mr Mugabe's alliance with Congo - a former Belgian colony and the largest Francophone country in Africa - is symbolic of the closer ties he has sought to build with France. These approaches have been encouraged by Paris. As Zimbabwe's relations with Britain have deteriorated, France has taken the opportunity to forge new links with a disgruntled Anglophone country. Mr Mugabe was one of a handful of English-speaking African leaders invited to the summit in Cameroon with those of Francophone nations. He held talks there with President Chirac and many of France's closest African allies.
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 19 January
Mugabe police seize 'subversive' MP
Harare - Fears were raised of a new campaign against Zimbabwe's opposition yesterday after police raided the home of an MP and arrested him for making "subversive statements". Mzila Ndlovu, the MDC MP for Bulilimamangwe North, was taken away from his home in Bulawayo shortly before 1am. Four plainclothes policemen and two uniformed officers made the arrest in front of Mr Ndlovu's wife and children. David Coltart, the MDC justice spokesman, accused police of a "flagrant disregard for the rule of law". He said: "We can expect more arrests of MDC MPs and supporters on spurious charges. It is high time that Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth and other international organisations. If the international community continues to remain mute regarding such flagrant abuses of human rights, then the Robert Mugabe regime will feel it can act with impunity." Mr Ndlovu was told that he faced charges under the Law and Order Maintenance Act after making a "subversive" speech last month. This notorious legislation, originally passed by the colonial government in an effort to stamp out black nationalism, makes any statement likely to cause "alarm and despondency" a criminal offence.
From The Daily News, 19 January
Gubbay rebukes Chidyausiku
Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay yesterday rebuked Judge president Godfrey Chidyausiku over what he called his unprofessional behaviour and unwarranted public criticism of the judiciary. Chidyausiku became the judiciary's problem child after the government launched a massive onslaught on the Bench primarily for overturning the State's decisions on the methods used in the acquisition of land.
"The judge president, in his erroneous judgement, overstepped his authority in purporting to suspend the order of a court superior to his own," said Gubbay yesterday. "The applicant should have been told to direct his application to the Supreme Court which alone had power to suspend its own order,”" he said. The conflict reached a climax when Chidyausiku ignored a Supreme Court decision, reached with the consent of the government, postponing the haphazard resettlement programme, launched initially as a political campaign strategy. The scheme has since degenerated into a chaotic scramble for prime land, thus threatening the viability of organised agriculture.
The Supreme Court refrained from commenting publicly on Chidyausiku's ruling at the time. But, the judge president went further, launching a fresh attack on the judiciary and his senior colleagues when he opened the High Court Legal Year in Bulawayo last week. Gubbay yesterday said: "The ethics and traditions of the legal profession demand that a judicial officer whose judgement is overturned by a higher court should not appeal to the public to support his view. The reason is obvious. He is seeking to undermine the very legal system of which he is a part."
In terms of the Constitution, the Chief Justice can recommend an investigation into the behaviour of a judge, leading to his or her dismissal from the Bench. However, in this case, Gubbay said that Chidyausiku's conduct does not warrant such a severe censure. "Nonetheless, it is deserving of a reprimand," he said, in a statement. "I have accordingly issued such a reprimand, and hereby make it public. In the tense situation prevailing in the country, the judge president should avoid making inflammatory statements. This is not the first occasion on which he has done so. He is required to refrain in future from such conduct. My colleagues on the Supreme Court bench support me fully in this statement," he said.
Gubbay cited an order against farm invasions by the Supreme Court which ruled that Chidyausiku had no power "to interfere with the order and procedure of this court" in its ruling in the case of Samson Mhuriro, a Mhondoro peasant farmer was against the eviction of the farm invaders. When he opened the High Court Legal Year in Bulawayo, Chidyausiku said he had difficulties in accepting the Supreme Court order, a concern described by Gubbay as totally misconceived. "The hierarchy of the courts is understood by the simplest layman and thus the Supreme Court has the power and authority to overturn a decision by a judge of the High Court," said Gubbay.
Chidyausiku said: "Indeed, even justice administered under a tree recognises that a man be heard in his own defence before judgement is passed against him." He said Zimbabwe's land redistribution programme had created a gulf between the Executive and the Judiciary. Gubbay said: "The judge president cannot defend the failure to obey the Court orders on the basis that the land distribution is a political and not a legal issue. Such an attitude conflicts the rule of law and his oath of office." He said Chidyausiku's attacks were political. "His attack on myself as Chief Justice is essentially a political attack. I will not follow the judge president into the political arena. His allegations are rejected." Gubbay said.