Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Special Report Enforcing the Rule of Law in Zimbabwe However, President Mugabe refused to sign POSA into law, after he had granted war veterans the financial package which was the first policy step in wrecking the Zimbabwean economy and after Parliament had passed it in 1998. He preferred to retain the colonial LOMA. Already the Supreme Court has struck down as infringing our constitutional rights s50(2)(a) of LOMA, which had been omitted from POSA. Sections 30(1), 44(1)(a) 51(2) and 58 of LOMA are also being challenged as unconstitutional. Mugabe has used two specific legal instruments to achieve his own objectives: his Constitutional prerogative of mercy; and his own Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act (PP(TM)A) (cap 10:20), passed in 1986 in anticipation of an executive presidency and used only four times by the outgoing president, presumably on the advice of Robert Mugabe as Prime Minister. The very first of these uses set an unfortunate example for the rule of law. SI 151B/1986 varied the time margins for electoral Nomination Courts. The second (SI 1998/1986) was used to order all property owners in Harare to clean up and paint their premises before the State Visit of Queen Elizabeth II! It set a precedent for two later ones making similar orders ahead of international meetings. In late 1987, the fourth and last dissolved all of the district councils in Matabeleland North province (SI 279A/1987). Up to mid-2001, Mugabe had used his Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act 32 times to promulgate subordinate legislation. Not infrequently, their use has been to pull bureaucratic chestnuts out of the fire when something has been overlooked, particularly regarding elections of various kinds. Some have corrected others! However, six at least have not upheld either the rule of law or specific laws and court decisions, including two patronal ones, SI 176A/1993, which nullified a specific High Court eviction order, and SI 148/1994, which allowed the permanent secretary for Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to forbid sales in execution of private homes.1 SI 368B/1998 achieved deserved notoriety, for amending regulations defining ‘unlawful collective action’ under the Labour Relations Act. So did SI 240B/1999, amending regulations under the Prisons Act retrospectively to confer powers on warders after a Supreme Court judgment had enforced remand prisoners’ rights. SI 153A/2001 similarly applied retrospective validation, this time to actions involving land designation taken over a year previously – and Parliament passed a similar inclusion in the Land Acquisition Amendment Act. Together with SI 255A/2000 and the Broadcasting Services Act (for which SI 255A/2000 formed the basis), both changes to the land legislation were deemed unconstitutional by the Parliamentary Legal Committee. Robert Mugabe, as State President, has also legislated extensively through Statutory Instruments, using a wide range of statutes, as shown in detail in Appendices 4 and 5. In a total of 450 legislative interventions (excluding the purely ceremonial), many other presidential uses of subordinate legislation have combined patronage with ceremonial functions. Robert Mugabe has personally declared all National Heroes (at national, provincial and district levels) using SIs under the National Heroes Act. He has personally used the Privileges Act to extend diplomatic and financial privileges to a wide range of organisations, including the African Centre for Fertiliser Development (in addition to more obviously deserving beneficiaries such as the 1 It is unclear whether these provisions were formalised more permanently. In August 2001, the Sheriff of the High Court was reported to have instructed that sales in execution of 39 homes be stopped, including one belonging to former minister Enos Chikowore (The Daily News 5.9.01). 19