Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Special Report Enforcing the Rule of Law in Zimbabwe New appointees1 to the High Court bench were widely perceived to have personal ties to the Government and ruling party. They included former non-constituency (appointed) MP and member of the Government’s Constitutional Commission Rita Makarau; her law firm partner Annie Gowora; former UZ law lecturer and member of the Government’s Constitutional Commission Ben Hlatswayo; ex-combatant Charles Hungwe; Godfrey Chidyausiku’s brother’s daughter, Antonia Guvava, formerly Director of the Legal Advice Division in the AttorneyGeneral’s Office; and ex-combatant George Chiweshe (previously Judge Advocate in the Zimbabwe Defence Forces). The justice minister admitted that, even with these new appointments, the demand (driven by human rights organisations) for justice in the courts exceeds its current supply.2 Perceptions notwithstanding, both Justices Makarau and Hungwe upheld earlier judgments and found against the State on cases of farm trespass. However, Justice Hlatswayo upheld a state appeal against record bail (totalling Z$16 million), with surrender of travel douments, granted by a magistrate, and ordered Peter Raymond Lotriet and Patricia Ann Mitchell to be remanded in custody over a case involving NOCZIM. Magistrates’ Courts As the magistrates courts were extended, inter alia to Chivu and Featherstone, in May 2001 of 222 magisterial posts at various levels, 39 were vacant and advertised. State employment practices, as well as low pay and poor benefits, seem to have been implicated in the vacancy rate. Four magistrates were reported to have sued the State for unfair labour practices and back pay, after being paid as assistant magistrates for over three years, since 1997.3 The danger to justice posed by inadequate remuneration was exemplified in the prosecution of former Gweru magistrate Elias Chiterera. He was sentenced to eight months in jail, with a further seven months conditionally suspended, for accepting a Z$500 bribe to issue a false marriage certificate. But the job carries many other dangers as well. A fundamental problem is that magistrates are part of the public service, and thus particularly vulnerable to intimidation, especially in smaller towns where they have no State protection against either disaffected litigants or expectations of ‘politically correct judgments’, as one lawyer put it. As seen by some lawyers in small-town practice, the magistrates’ general tendency is to deal with politically-sensitive cases by referring them to other courts. The Secretary for Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs reportedly refused to provide magistrates with 24-hour police protection, despite abnormal threats to their safety.4 Like other civil servants and law enforcement officers, magistrates have been transferred at the behest of the ‘war veterans’. A large crowd, reportedly of Zanu-PF supporters, demonstrated for three days against Karoi magistrate Sikhumbuzo Nyathi after he had bailed 106 farmworkers on charges of public violence in attempting to throw ‘war veterans’ off ‘their’ farms. Following deputy ministerial intervention, Nyathi was reportedly transferred to Kadoma and forbidden to speak to ‘All with strong links either to the government or to Zanu-PF’ (The Daily News 22.12.00). Charles Hungwe, according to the Justice minister, was to represent on the High Court bench and thus ‘empower’ war veterans as a class (The Zimbabwe Independent 5.1.01). 2 Parliamentary Debates 27,36:3655-6. 3 The Herald 27.6.01. 4 The Herald 23.5.01. 1 45