• JAG Open Letters Forum No. 178
• Decision time for Zimbabwe
• Namibian workers prepare to invade farms
• Zimbabwe appoints local banker as cenbank governor
• Illegal hunts wiping out Zimbabwe's wildlife
• Gadhafi Must Go
• Banks start limiting cash withdrawals
• S Africa Pres Sees Possibility Of Zimbabwe Unity Govt
• Zimbabwe exiles protest in Pretoria
• Zimbabwe's Debt Hits Z600bn
• Foreign Exchange Shortage, Remittance Boom
• Zimbabweans are criminalised
• Zim's economy 'shrinking'
• Election result still in the balance

: The bold legal challenge launched this week by Zimbabwe's opposition to
President Robert Mugabe's rule essentially asks the country's High Court to
make a choice between two views: The first, held by the poll's Western
international monitors, is that the national election was deeply flawed and
rigged, and the second, held by observers sent from neighbouring countries,
is that it was fine by African standards. Given Mugabe's control and
intimidation of the judiciary in recent years - only last month a judge was
taken hostage by soldiers during a government dispute with a critical
newspaper - there is little reason to believe the court will side with
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is already standing trial on
treason charges.

Still, the clash of the two positions validates the claim of Tsvangirai's
lawyer Jeremy Gauntlett that this is the most important case to come before
the courts in Zimbabwe since the 1960s, when the wife of a detained black
nationalist challenged the legality of Ian Smith's rebel Rhodesian
government.

Among Tsvangirai's complaints about the election last March, which Mugabe
won with 56 per cent of the vote, are that members of the supervising
election committee were hand-picked by Mugabe; that only Mugabe loyalists -
including soldiers, government officials and diplomats - were given the
right to a postal vote while three million other citizens, who had fled the
economic problems at home to live in South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and
Britain were denied a say; that Mugabe abused sweeping presidential powers
to change some electoral rules 72 hours before polling; and that the ruling
party waged a campaign of violence and intimidation against opposition
supporters, bribed voters and hogged access to state media.

The position of the African observers, many of whom did not even stay for
the balloting, seemed to be that none of that mattered as long as the winner
had connections to Zimbabwe's 1970s war of liberation.

For this was what really was at stake in last year's election. Should
Tsvangirai's

Movement for Democratic Change have won, it would have been the first time
one of the so-called national-liberation-movement governments that now rule
much of southern Africa was tossed out of power and replaced peacefully.
This would have been an alarming development for the region's self-serving
elites - most of whom have only a long-exhausted claim of having helped
secure independence for their countries from colonial rule to justify their
hold on power.

Certainly they can't claim to have competently administered national
affairs.

In Zimbabwe, close to eight million people are now facing starvation thanks
in part to a politically motivated decision by Mugabe to seize commercial
farms from white landowners. The health and education systems have collapsed
and the economy is in a shambles. Similarly, in South Africa, Angola,
Mozambique and Namibia life expectancy is shrinking and living conditions
are generally getting worse.

To be sure, it can be argued that Mugabe didn't really become a target of
his Western critics until he turned his back on an International Monetary
Fund-sponsored austerity programme. Before then, Washington and London
seemed content to turn a blind eye to his abuses - such as his brutal
suppression of the political opposition in Matabeleland in the 1980s - as
long as the interests of multinationals were protected.

The advent of liberal black parties such as the MDC is an encouraging
development for African voters who are fed up with the tyranny, corruption
and hypocrisy of their leaders. Mugabe and his regional counterparts
repeatedly say they are acting to defend the "gains of liberation" but in
most cases they are the only people with gains to protect.

Yet, as the hearing currently underway in Harare will no doubt show, the
battle against oppression will be a long, uphill one. -- The Nation
Publication Date: 2003-11-05

      November 05 2003 at 02:09AM

Windhoek - Namibian farm workers will try to invade 15 commercial farms
across the country next week after the government ignored their demands for
land reform, the head of the Namibia Farmworkers Union (NAFWU) said on
Tuesday.

NAFWU General Secretary Alfred Angula, said the move was not a land grab and
the workers would share the land with the current owners and not damage or
occupy property.

The majority of commercial farms in Namibia are white-owned, and most of the
15 farms planned for invasion are likely to be owned by white farmers.

The surprise announcement is likely to be greeted with concern in parts of
the region, following the seizure of white-owned commercial farms in
Zimbabwe for redistribution to landless blacks, a policy supported by
President Robert Mugabe.

      'Being black and poor, the law will always be against you as justice
is for sale'
Angula said NAFWU was unhappy at the way farm workers and dwellers had been
treated since Namibia's independence 13 years ago and said farm owners had
unfairly dismissed, evicted and humiliated them.

Although land claims had been lodged with labour courts, justice had not
prevailed, Angula said.

"Being black and poor, the law will always be against you as justice is for
sale," Angula said at a news conference in the capital after the meeting of
some 70 union delegates.

Namibia's agricultural sector - dominated by beef exports to the European
Union - is second only to mining as the main engine of the economy.

Independent economists expressed concern about the effect of the invasions
on foreign investment, while others said Namibia's ruling SWAPO party - led
by Mugabe ally President Sam Nuyoma - had delayed land reform for too long.

"This is a clear indication of the frustration of rural people on government
delay in implementing resolutions on land reform taken at last year's SWAPO
conference," Robin Sherbourne, of the Namibian Institute of Public Policy
Research said.

A government spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

Tuesday November 4, 2:43 PM EST

(Adds analyst comment, background)

By Stella Mapenzauswa

HARARE, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has appointed
respected local banker Gideon Gono as new central bank governor, the
Ministry of Information said on Tuesday.

Gono's appointment, effective from Dec. 1 with a five-year term, fills the
vacancy left by Leonard Tsumba, whose contract ended in July, the ministry
said in a statement.

Prior to his new posting, Gono was chief executive at the Commercial Bank of
Zimbabwe (CBZ), the country's fourth largest commercial bank. CBZ is part
owned by the government and South African banking group ABSA (ASAJ).

"Dr. Gono's meritorious career at CBZ has given him a firm international
profile in financial and banking circles of Europe, the Far East, the Middle
East, North Africa and within the SADC (Southern African Development
Community)," the statement said.

State media reported at the weekend that Mugabe would overhaul the central
bank, accused by government officials of failing to handle an acute shortage
of foreign currency and quell a thriving black market which has afflicted
the country since 1999.

Gono, who turns 44 this month, has close links with Mugabe's government and
has spearheaded efforts by local financial institutions to secure funds for
crucial food, fuel and electricity imports.

But analysts are concerned that Gono might not be allowed to implement
policy because of his close relationship with the government.

"Gono is a good businessman who was able to turn around CBZ from near
collapse in the 1990's, but the problem is that he is likely to follow
government policy which might not necessarily be economically sound," said
Witness Chinyama, economist at Kingdom Financial Holdings.

Chinyama said Gono was likely to champion the government's goal of low
interest rates despite rampant inflation now nearing 460 percent.

Overnight interbank rates were at 185 percent on Tuesday, with average
minimum lending rates for most commercial banks at 160 percent.

As the country battles an acute shortage of foreign currency, the government
has kept the Zimbabwe dollar pegged at an official rate of 824 to the U.S.
dollar, but it is actively trading around 5,600 per greenback on a thriving
black market.

Mugabe has set up a Cabinet task force to stifle the black market in
currency trading.

The cash shortages are part of a wider crisis, that includes a food shortage
affecting millions of Zimbabweans, unemployment of around 70 percent and one
of the world's highest rates of inflation.

Critics blame mismanagement by Mugabe's government since independence from
Britain in 1980. Mugabe has denied mismanaging the country, arguing the
economic collapse is largely due to sabotage by local and foreign opponents
as revenge for the land confiscations.

      Rodrigues has lists of registration numbers of people seen hunting
illegally in Zimbabwe, many of whom come from Limpopo province. Zimbabwe
National Parks staff have been seen in the company of South African hunters.

      Paul Bristow, who has a cattle and game farm near Beit Bridge, said
two South Africans had moved onto his property two weeks ago to hunt for
biltong and skins. They claimed they had been given permission by war
veterans.

      The Hunting Report, a newsletter for hunters published in the United
States, has warned American hunters that safaris are being conducted
illegally in Zimbabwe.

      "The illegal hunts are being conducted on lands that have been
occupied by so-called war veterans who don't own these lands or possess the
rights to wildlife on them.

      "The South African professional hunters are simply capitalising on the
lawlessness and disorder in Zimbabwe," the newsletter said.

      Gary Davies, chief executive director of the Professional Hunters'
Association of SA, said yesterday he had heard reports of illegal hunting,
which the association condemned.

      "If they are our members we will take action, but so far we've only
heard accusations and no one has come up with anything to substantiate the
claims," Davies said.

      The Cape Times was unable to get comment from Zimbabwe National Parks
or the country's department of environment and tourism.

      Tony Frost of WWF-South Africa said yesterday: "We decry in the
strongest terms any form of illegal or unethical hunting. It is a
tragedy." - Environment Writer

Has that changed? Ask Mohammed Eljahmi, a 44-year-old Libyan-born
naturalized U.S. citizen, whose older brother back in Libya, 62-year-old
Fathi Eljahmi, was arrested 13 months ago for speaking out against Gadhafi
and calling for democracy. Fathi was sentenced to five years in prison, at a
trial he himself was not allowed to attend. He is now doing time in
Tripoli's Abu-Salim prison, notorious both for wretched conditions and for a
1996 massacre in which the authorities shot hundreds of inmates.
On the international front, littered along Gadhafi's trail along with the
outright terrorist acts for which he is now buying indulgences, there are
odd incidents that should also leave us deeply wary. Three years ago, he
provided some $10 million to ransom 10 European hostages held by the Islamic
terrorist group Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines. For this, he reaped the
gratitude of the freed hostages, some of whom went to Libya to thank him
effusively for his kindness. The net effect, however, was also the transfer,
in broad daylight, of a big lump of cash from Gadhafi to terrorists in the
Philippines. Ransom? Or funding?

Nor are Gadhafi's quarrels with the Arab League any cause for Western
comfort. Gadhafi's switch from ardent Nasserite pan-Arabist to a pacesetter
in African politics began in 1992, when the U.N. imposed sanctions on Libya
for the Lockerbie bombing, and Arab states declined to rally round Gadhafi.
So he refocused his favors on Africa. There, his efforts to buy friends and
influence fellow dictators eventually got Libya that chairmanship this year,
as Africa's choice, at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. In Africa,
Gadhafi has had a hand in a long series of bloody catastrophes, including in
recent times the brutal presidency in Liberia of Libyan-trained Charles
Taylor, and Gadhafi's support in the form of fuel and friendship for
Zimbabwe's aging dictator, Robert Mugabe--who has held onto power by
orchestrating his own cultural revolution, complete with mob attacks and
famine for those who oppose him.

Libya has also surfaced in recent weeks in regard to the arrest of an
American Muslim activist, Abdur Rahman Alamoudi, charged with an interesting
medley of activities, including not only helping the terrorist group Hamas
but also accepting $340,000 in sequentially numbered $100 bills from the
Libyan government, apparently to lobby for the lifting of U.S. sanctions.

And Gadhafi, on Oct. 4, gave a speech to a group of women in the Libyan city
of Sabha, in which he held up as models the suicide bombers of Baghdad and
Gaza. As translated by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research
Institute, Gadhafi urged these Libyan women to learn how to "booby trap the
car and blow it up among the enemy" and how to "booby-trap the children's
toys, so they blow up on the enemy soldiers."

In the free world, so used to dealing in good faith, there abides this
strange belief that even terrorist sponsoring tyrants can be redeemed--that
a Kim Jong Il can be coddled out of his cruelties, that a Gadhafi can change
his spots. Perhaps that's because in our own daily lives, we experience
almost nothing of what these regimes are really like. We show far more
insight into the tame, familiar realms of, say, our own corporate affairs,
where we readily agree that gross mismanagement--an Enron, a WorldCom--can
be remedied only by firing the executives responsible. We have yet to grasp
fully that in raw, ruthless dictatorships--in the case of a Gadhafi, who has
inflicted on his own people, for 34 years, gross misrule by force and
terror--the same principle applies.
The true redemption of Libya cannot be achieved by accepting from
Gadhafi--he of the booby traps--promises and blood money. That money, sucked
from the oil wells of Libya, belongs by rights not to Gadhafi, but to 5.4
million people of Libya. Real reform can only begin when he is gone.

As for the $9 billion with which Libya proposes to put itself in the running
to host the 2010 World Cup , El-Saadi Gadhafi, the second son of Gadhafi's
second wife, has been telling the London press it's a good investment. He
should know. He's head of the Libyan soccer federation.

Ms. Rosett is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of
Democracies. Her column appears here and in The Wall Street Journal Europe
on alternate Wednesdays.

      Copyright © 2003, Dow Jones Newswires

      TORONTO (AP)--Talks between Zimbabwe's ruling party and opposition
could produce an agreement soon on a coalition government, South African
President Thabo Mbeki said Tuesday.

      Speaking at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Jean Chretien,
Mbeki said both sides in Zimbabwe realize they need to resolve the southern
African nation's political problem before tackling a crippling economic
crisis.

      "They've been talking to each other. They're talking to each other
now," Mbeki said of President Robert Mugabe's ruling party and the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

      "My sense ... is that it won't take that long," said Mbeki, who has
been criticized by human rights groups and others for failing to publicly
criticize anti-democratic policies and the increasing authoritarian stance
of Mugabe.

      "I think the ruling party and the opposition understand ... the depth
of the economic crisis and the impact on the lives of the people," Mbeki
said. "Both sides are very, very sensitive to it. ... Nobody is dragging
their feet. They will move with some speed."

      The opposition blames Mugabe for plunging Zimbabwe into its worst
economic crisis since independence in 1980, with 70% unemployment and acute
shortages of food, gasoline and medicine.

      A state program to seize thousands of white-owned farms for
redistribution to blacks has crippled the agriculture-based economy over the
past three years.

      Mugabe's government has in recent years stepped up its crackdown on
the opposition. Investment and foreign aid have dried up in protest of human
rights abuses and last year's tainted presidential elections, and Zimbabwe
has been suspended from the Commonwealth grouping of former British
colonies.

      Zimbabwe's economy is "in a very serious crisis," Mbeki said. "A lot
of work ... needs to be done in regard to the reconstruction of the economy.
They are going to need a lot of assistance, with regard to everything."

      Mbeki thanked Canada for its past support for the anti-apartheid
movement and praised Chretien for helping focus the G8 group of leading
industrial nations on African development.

      Chretien called Mbeki, who succeeded Nelson Mandela as president in
South Africa's second all-race election in 1999, "one of the great leaders
I've known in my career."

      He noted Mbeki was working to create a national coalition government
in Zimbabwe, and said Mbeki told him "there will be an agreement, he thinks,
soon."

      Chretien also announced his government would introduce a proposal on
Thursday to allow Canada to take part in a World Trade Organization
agreement that permits the export of cheaper generic versions of patented
medicines to developing nations faced with medical crises such as AIDS.

      While conceding it would take months to work out changes in patent
laws and other details to implement the bill, Chretien called it a first
step in providing affordable medicines to countries that need them most.

      "It is a difficult administrative problem," Chretien said. "It's
important to be the ones that take the first step. In all jurisdictions it
will take time to put this step in place."

      Mbeki, whose country faces a huge AIDS problem, said making necessary
drugs affordable was one critical need, along with creating distribution and
storage systems for the medicines in developing countries.

      "I think it ... would be incorrect to pretend that is the only
challenge," Mbeki said. "We would want all of it to happen tomorrow, but
there are some practical problems."

      (END) Dow Jones Newswires

      November 04, 2003 23:09 ET (04:09 GMT)

Business Day (Johannesburg)

November 5, 2003
Posted to the web November 5, 2003

Michael Mhlophe
Johannesburg

ZIMBABWE's domestic debt has ballooned to more than Z600bn, as government
borrows heavily from the private sector to prop up ailing parastatals and
finance subsidies on grain and fuel.

Major state-owned enterprises, particularly the National Oil Company of
Zimbabwe, the Grain Marketing Board, the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company and
Air Zimbabwe were cited by the finance ministry as the biggest contributors
to the domestic debt.

In a move to sustain the controversial land reform programme, government is
subsidising the price of fuel to resettled farmers as well as grain and
wheat purchases from them through the Grain Marketing Board, thus incurring
a heavy deficit.

The deficit in turn is being financed by heavy borrowing from the private
sector through the issue of state-guaranteed grain bills, agrobonds and
petrofin bills.

Yesterday, government went to the market for Z10bn to finance fuel
procurement for the national oil company, which ran out of stocks a
fortnight ago.

The finance ministry's permanent secretary, Nicholas Ncube, told a meeting
of industry and commerce leaders in Bulawayo last week that much of the
borrowing was in favour of recurrent expenditure at the expense of capital
and infrastructure development.

He said most parastatals were recording losses due to mismanagement and
their failure to charge economically viable prices.

"Large public sector borrowing requirements, not all supportive of
productive activities, have anchored money supply growth rates in excess of
300%.

"These are inconsistent with economic activity and have largely served to
attract inflation."

Meanwhile, the central bank yesterday announced an increase of 19,9% in the
country's broad money supply growth between March and April this year.

In its latest economic review, the bank said broad money supply growth, or
the total cash stock in circulation, was higher at 226,6%, while the money
market recorded surpluses of Z3bn in April.

The country's money supply growth is estimated at more than 300%, fuelled on
by hyperinflation, and the introduction of high denomination bearer's
cheques, much of which money is being used for speculative and consumptive
purposes.

Zimbabweans are criminalised

Gugulethu Moyo

A tear fell from my cheek on to the concrete floor. It was 7pm - time to go.
I took one last look through the bars of the prison cell. A police officer
bellowed, "One prisoner at a time, you get your food one by one!" They stood
in line waiting to fetch their evening meal from a pile at the cell door.
Stuart moved forward to peer into the paper bag with his name marked on it.
He walked bare-foot. His tailored, light-grey trousers, now heavily creased
and streaked with grime, were rolled up to his knees. Rachel waved goodbye.
She stood quietly in line behind 20 other detainees. Her feet stood bare on
the filthy ground. Stuart Mattinson is a retired stockbroker. He runs a
financial consultancy in Harare. He has not been to the offices of his
financial advisory firm all week. Rachel Kupara is a well-known Zimbabwean
investment banker. She sits on the boards of four Zimbabwean companies - one
of them listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. For three years, during the
1990s, she served as a director of state-controlled newspaper publishing
company Zimbabwe Newspapers Ltd. Three months ago she accepted a seat on the
board of another publishing company, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ)
Ltd, publishers of The Daily News. She had been selected because of her
sharp financial mind and solid exposure to media business.

This Wednesday both these people stood in the dock of a dingy Harare
courtroom, accused with three other directors of the company. Their crime:
trying to run this publishing business. The day before when my lawyer
colleague Beatrice Mtetwa had tried to take them lunch, the prison officer,
a Sergeant Garanonga, informed her that lunch had been abolished. With
effect from 8am that day, criminal "suspects" were only entitled to eat
breakfast and supper. Mtetwa was forced to negotiate with the comptroller of
prisoners to allow at least one of the four detainees to have his food. He
is on a strict medication regime and cannot take his medication on an empty
stomach. Earlier the same morning my colleague and I had been denied access
for the purpose of rendering legal advice. We had had to seek the
intervention of a senior police officer and were allowed only five minutes
with them. During our brief interview we enquired about the conditions under
which they were being detained. Their description was of inhumane
conditions. The latrines housed within the cells were overflowing with human
waste. The floors were encrusted with dirt that had probably accumulated
over years of neglect. The walls and ceiling were stained with blood. The
blankets that line the concrete beds were infested with lice. By the second
day of detention one of the directors, Brian Mutsau, had developed severe
diarrhoea.

ANZ, the publishing company of which the group are directors, was formed in
1998. It’s primary objective, according to its Articles of Association, is
to publish newspapers. The state’s company laws permit a company to carry
out any business activity authorised in its objects clause. In March last
year the state legislated to criminalise certain activities relating to
publishing in the country. Seven weeks ago, in pursuance of this law, police
clamped down on the alleged criminal activity of ANZ. Police, armed with
AK-47 rifles, raided the company’s premises, forcefully evicted staff, and
seized the assets of the company. Publishing operations were shut down for
six weeks. Millions of dollars of revenue were lost. ANZ’s directors took
the state to court and last Friday won the battle to reopen the business. On
Saturday October 25 the company was back in business. The 50 000 copies of
that day’s edition of The Daily News circulated in the capital were sold out
within two hours. By lunchtime on October 25 18 employees of the company
were detained in a Harare police station. They had been forcefully removed
from their offices while working on the newspaper’s Sunday edition. Heavily
armed police took control of the premises, and that night the police raided
the private residence of the CEO. They arrested his niece. She was told that
she would be kept hostage until her uncle, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, gave himself
up. The girl, who had been charged with "engaging in conduct likely to cause
a breach of public peace", was released on Monday morning when Nkomo handed
himself over to the police. Early on Tuesday morning, in Bulawayo, the
police raided the home of a non-executive director and retired High Court
Judge, Washington Sansole. He was arrested. The police informed him that he
would be released only when other directors of the company had been
arrested. They held him until a High Court judge determined that the
detention was unlawful and ordered that he be released. All this in
Zimbabwe.

It is perhaps beyond me to understand the motive of a government that would
sanction this kind of bastardisation of its criminal justice system, save to
say that the Zimbabwean government has, through the enactment of the Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa), criminalised
legitimate economic activity. Newspaper publishing, in a normal society, is
a principal form of behaviour that brings people and institutions into
contact with each other and fosters economic and social progress. In a just
society, the stigma of criminality is only imposed on those who have
incurred the just condemnation of the criminal law. By this I mean that
there is a relationship between the vigorous enforcement of criminal
sanctions and public acceptance of the propriety of employing criminal
sanctions. A government cannot persuade the people to view conduct as
wrongful simply by making it criminal. Law, even criminal law, is simply not
that potent a weapon of social control. In fact, the reverse becomes true.
Far from criminalising morally neutral conduct, the intensive application of
criminal sanctions to activity that is considered to be "normal", as is the
case with newspaper publishing, has the effect of decriminalising the
criminal law, traumatising its citizens and bringing the criminal justice
system into disrepute. A state that makes criminal that which people regard
as acceptable will find that the people’s attitude towards what is criminal
undergoes change. Criminality loses its stigma and, slowly criminals are
perceived as victims, rather than as a danger to society. Unfortunately, the
change in perception extends to all criminal cases, be they serious crime
that must be eradicated or not. People cease to accept the state’s
definition of criminality and the criminal law loses its potency as a weapon
for social control. Zimbabwe’s Aippa has the effect of making criminal
almost all the activities of media enterprises within Zimbabwe. This
misapplication of the criminal law lacks proper justification and thereby
brings the Zimbabwean criminal justice system into disrepute.

Gugulethu Moyo is the legal adviser to The Daily News

Harare - Zimbabwe's economy is being undermined by contradictory and
ineffectual government policies, corruption, greed and the country's
negative image abroad, a high-level conference heard on Wednesday.

The two-day conference - organised by the government and a group of
business, labour and civic organisations - is designed to discuss ways of
resolving the southern African country's economic crisis.

Participants at the no-holds barred talks, which continue on Thursday, said
it was vital to restore confidence in Zimbabwe and improve its image abroad.

"Without confidence people cannot save or invest in our country. Without
confidence capital flight will be the order of the day. Without confidence
we will have the black market instead of the formal market," said Anthony
Mandiwanza, head of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries.

Zimbabwe is suffering from a shrinking economy, hyperinflation, rising
poverty and unemployment, and shortages of most basic goods and services.

Several participants at the conference said the sharp decline of key sectors
of the economy in recent years was, at least in part, due to government
policies.

In 2000 Zimbabwe embarked on a land reform scheme which involved
compulsorily taking land from the white minority to give to landless blacks.
The reform has been severely criticised by many observers and has, they say,
contributed significantly to the country's current food shortages.

Tourism businessman Shingi Munyeza said it was in Zimbabwe's interest to
foster a better international image.

President Robert Mugabe and other prominent politicians have in recent years
launched vitriolic attacks on whites and certain western nations,
particularly the United States and former colonial ruler Britain.

Munyeza recommended a change in tone.

"Venomous statements ... are not working to our best advantage," he told the
conference.

"We need to correct the image. A more reconciliatory tone needs to go out
there to our source market... coming out of government, business."

John Nkomo, Minister for Special Affairs in Mugabe's office, acknowledged
the country faced problems and insisted the government was committed to
resolving the crisis.

JOHANNESBURG, 5 Nov 2003 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's High Court on Tuesday reserved
judgment on the petition by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) to have the results of the March 2002 presidential elections annulled.

The MDC, whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai lost to President Robert Mugabe,
alleges that Mugabe's victory was due to a number of irregularities and are
petitioning the court to declare the election invalid. If the MDC is
successful, another election will have to be held within 90 days.

"The judge wants time to consider the submissions ... The evidence is
overwhelming and our legal arguments were very strong, our case is
watertight," MDC shadow agriculture minister, Renson Gasela, told IRIN on
Wednesday. He added he had expected the government to have "come out with
more arguments" in its defence.

IRIN was unable to get comment from government officials.

The MDC's legal challenge, which began on Monday, include the allegation
that polling stations in only 19 out of 120 constituencies opened for a
third day of voting, and many only for half a day, in spite of a successful
court application by Tsvangirai to have the polling period extended.

Tsvangirai had applied for the order after it was found that the voting
process was moving very slowly. It was argued also that the failure to open
for a third day had a substantial bearing on the outcome of the election and
"for this reason alone" the presidential election should be set aside.

The MDC also alleged that Mugabe had changed the election rules. The party
submitted that during February 2003, after nomination day, the ruling
ZANU-PF pushed through parliament a General Law Amendment Act that made
significant changes to the election rules. They said the law was passed in
violation of the rules and procedures of the Zimbabwe parliament, and was
declared invalid by the Supreme Court. However, Mugabe declared the act to
be valid and overturned the Supreme Court ruling.

This enabled him not only to appoint military personnel to the Electoral
Supervisory Commission, but also to remove certain categories of voters from
the voters' roll. Zimbabwe's opposition media have alleged that the military
coordinated the government's election strategy.

The legal director of the MDC, David Coltart, told the anti-ZANU-PF UK-based
SW Radio Africa on Tuesday night that the party had 27 arguments why the
elections should be rerun. A major reason, he said, was that the Electoral
Supervisory Commission was one person short at the time, and so was not
lawfully constituted.

The election results were generally accepted by African leaders, but
rejected by European countries, the United States and the Commonwealth.
After the election, the MDC and ZANU-PF started conciliatory talks, but
these collapsed when the MDC refused ZANU-PF's demand that they withdraw the
petition to have the election results nullified.

This also marked an apparent escalation of anti-MDC crackdowns by the
government, in which all the party's top leadership face civil or criminal
charges.

Chris Maroleng, a researcher at South Africa's Institute for Security
Studies (ISS), told IRIN that one of the government's strategies appeared to
be to keep the party tied up in litigation to reduce its effectiveness.
"Especially the top leadership, like Morgan Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube and
Gibson Sibanda, who are busy with the treason trial, and now the election
petition," said Maroleng.

The men are accused of treason over an alleged plot to assassinate Mugabe.

Others charged include party spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi and MPs and
organisers across the country, besides hundreds of supporters arrested
during stayaways and marches. Maroleng said this would have the effect of
pushing leadership down a level, leaving the middle ranks to fill the vacuum
and delegating authority to the lower rungs of the party.

"The question now is, can the MDC effectively run the organisation at lower
levels of management, and does it create divisions [within the party]?" he
asked.

Besides the long-awaited challenge to the presidential elections, the MDC
has also launched individual challenges to 35 of the 62 seats won by ZANU-PF
in the June 2000 parliamentary elections. So far, the party had won eight
and lost five, a party statement said. Three had been withdrawn and 20 were
still to be heard.

ZANU-PF has appealed the results and left the MPs in their seats until the
outcome of the appeals.