Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Special Report Enforcing the Rule of Law in Zimbabwe contravene constitutional rights. (On 12 July 2001 acting Chief Justice Chidyausiku reserved indefinitely judgment in this particular matter.) Nelson Chamisa, MDC national youth chair, has also applied to have his charges of inciting public violence at a political rally under LOMA s30(1), alternatively s58, discharged under s20(1) of the Constitution. His lawyer, Innocent Chagonda, was reported1 to have argued that ‘certain people in certain quarters have not been charged under the same sections, with particular reference to Zanu-PF which has openly boasted of having degrees in violence. The selective application of justice is totally undesirable in a democracy. You cannot have one section of the population enjoying immunity while another does not, when they have both made utterances likely to cause violence’. For the last half-year, Government has appeared to ignore Supreme Court rulings which it finds inconvenient. The executive has also attempted to restructure the judiciary and has not discouraged its politicisation, particularly the Supreme Court. The MDC opposition has protested vigorously in Parliament, before being outvoted. Until mid-2001, five judges comprised the full Supreme Court bench. In July 2001, three new judges were appointed to the Supreme Court, bringing the full bench to eight, including, for the first time in our history, one woman, Vernanda Ziyambe from the Harare High Court. Misheck Cheda and Luke Malaba were promoted from the Bulawayo High Court. The Zimbabwe Independent noted ‘Two of those appointees were reported last weekend to have benefited from the Government’s opaque land lease scheme. In other words, they will be asked to deliver judgments on the legality of a land redistribution process of which they are recipients.’2 According to the list of farm allocations circulated by Margaret Dongo in 1999, Justice Cheda had been allocated Marula Farm 38 and Justice Malaba Marula Farm 35, both on leases of unspecified duration and with rentals still to be assessed. The ‘Marula block’ of farms has twice been invaded by disaffected neighbouring villagers. In November 2000, ‘war veterans’ and Zanu-PF supporters physically invaded the Supreme Court. The Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs failed to condemn this invasion.3 Then Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay and Justice Wilson Sandura met the acting president, ostensibly to discuss the threats to the judiciary by the ‘war veterans’, but were reportedly faced with an attack on the judiciary itself which was later repeated by the State President.4 As only the judiciary stood between Zimbabwe and anarchy, there was a massive crisis as the Chief Justice, Anthony Gubbay, was forced into early retirement,5 first from March and then from July 2001. His resignation was enforced five days after the Supreme Court had struck down as unconstitutional Statutory Instrument 318/2000 – the State President’s attempt, using his Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act, to nullify the MDC’s petitions against the 1 The Daily News 9.2.01: Chagonda refers here to a boast made by President Mugabe himself. The Zimbabwe Independent 24.8.01. 3 The Daily News 10.1.01. 4 The Sunday Mail 28.1.01. 5 He admitted this only on departure, having earlier accepted an invitation from the US government ‘to discuss matters of mutual concern and interest, including the role of the judiciary in promoting democracy in Zimbabwe’, with a wide range of officials, politicians and human rights activists (The Herald 26.2.01). 2 42