Comment from ZWNEWS, 25 September

Blackie: The background

By Michael Hartnack

With the early hours arrest of a recently retired white judge, his 27-hour incarceration in filthy police cells, his appearance shivering in court, and an outlandish allegation of an affair with a white woman he had acquitted, Zimbabwe has taken a giant step nearer total destruction of confidence in the courts, prosecutors and police. It is impossible to escape the conclusion that Judge Fergus Blackie, 65, was the latest victim of a cynical and sinister smear, combined with terror. Before leaving the bench, the last act by Blackie - the seventh judge forced from office by Robert Mugabe’s regime in the past two years - was to order the arrest of Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa for repeated contempt of court orders. Chinamasa evaded the warrant until he had it overturned by pro-Mugabe judges. After three nights in freezing cells, Blackie was on September 16 remanded on Z$10 000 bail on charges of obstructing the course of justice or alternatively breaching the Prevention of Corruption Act. The charges supposedly arise from an appeal by Tara White, a 40-year-old financial controller, which had been heard jointly by Blackie and recently-appointed Judge Rita Makarau. Before leaving in May, Blackie gave his judgment, upholding the appeal, to a typist with instructions that it should be passed on to Makarau. It is alleged this was not done, and the judgment was handed down by the duty judge without Makarau's consent - possibly due to a filing error. The typist has made an affidavit to this effect. Nevertheless, Makarau and High Court Judge President Paddington Garwe sent a complaint to Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku. The Chief Justice informed the police.

White had been sentenced in a magistrate's court to an effective 12 months' imprisonment on allegations of stealing Z$500 000 set aside by her employers, a group of travel and car hire companies, to pay taxes. She pleaded not guilty and produced a receipt for the cash from the tax department. No witness was called from the department to support prosecution claims that the money was never paid. A prominent Zanu PF lawyer, Jonathan Samkange, who had acquired an interest in the companies, made general allegations against White, which, said Blackie, were clearly inadmissible. On this ground alone she was entitled to acquittal, he ruled. Samkange was reportedly furious. White, who has young children, was arrested like Blackie on September 13, and released on Z$5 000 bail on September 17. Her remand application form (but not Blackie's, most significantly) contains the bald and brief words that she was suspected of having "a sexual relationship" with Blackie. The state-controlled Herald falsely reported that this claim was made in open court at White’s remand hearing. It was not; it was in the police docket, which also contained a statement by White that she has never met Blackie, she was not even in court when her appeal was argued, and she only knows that he looks like from newspaper photographs. The Herald ignored this, and instead carried a "cartoon" purporting to show the judge and White in bed together.

Blackie, a devout Catholic and prominent human rights jurist, has clashed with Mugabe's ministers before. A 1995 Bulawayo case in which he presided speaks volumes about justice in Zimbabwe. Itai Maguza, manager of a subsidiary of the parastatal Industrial Development Corporation, pleaded guilty to a massive fraud, but Blackie refused to accept a statement of facts agreed by the defence and prosecution which glossed over the alleged implication of the then Minister of Commerce, Christopher Ushewokunze, and others. They had ample opportunity to rebut Maguza's evidence when Blackie sought and received further, clear testimony of their guilt.  "I was afraid. There was a minister involved. There was the person who could hire me or fire me, who had control of my life, so to speak. That is why I did it," Maguza said. Blackie gave Maguza permission to appeal against a 3-year jail sentence, saying the fraud was the idea of the accused man’s superiors who ``acted with extreme cynicism and greed." Ushewokunze was killed in a drunken car accident (his third in 24 hours) some months later, and declared a "National Hero". Maguza's appeal and jail term, and the prosecutions of the other fraudsters, appear to have been forgotten while the judge’s role has not been forgiven. The African Union last week said corruption cost Africa U$148 billion a year. Now we see how, and why.

South Africa's Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson said Blackie's arrest appeared calculated to intimidate the judiciary. However, the South African government’s appearence of complicity in human rights outrages increased when its police representatives recently supported the election of Zimbabwean Commissioner Augustine Chihuri as chairman of the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs' Co-Operation Organisation. After this triumph, Chihuri's long overdue retirement was postponed a further 12 months by Mugabe. And Zimbabweans are left wondering who will be the next person to disappear - and then be accused of raping little children, or some other foul-mouthed obscenity.