In response to the court rulings, the government used various strategies to bring the judiciary under its direction and control.25 These included a combination of attacks and inducements to make the judiciary more malleable. On November 24, 2000, war veterans forcibly entered the Supreme Court building where judges were about to hear a constitutional application brought by the Commercial Farmers Union; the war veterans shouted ZANU-PF political slogans and called for judges to be killed.26 In December 2000 President Mugabe described judges as guardians of “white racist commercial farmers.”27 Then-Minister of Information Jonathan Moyo accused the Supreme Court, particularly Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay, of being biased in favor of white landowners.28 In January 2001 Mugabe intensified attacks on the judiciary when he publicly accused Gubbay of aiding and abetting racism.29 Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa told Chief Justice Gubbay that the government no longer had confidence in him and asked him to step down. As a result, Gubbay resigned in March 2001, well before his term of office had expired. Following the chief justice’s resignation, ZANU-PF members of Parliament passed a vote of no confidence in the Supreme Court, and the Minister of Justice encouraged remaining Supreme Court judges to resign.30 In an unprecedented move, Gubbay’s was replaced by Godfrey Chidyausiku (a former deputy minister of justice in the ZANU-PF government and a beneficiary of the government’s land reform program), who was appointed chief justice ahead of more senior judges.31 Political interference and intimidation led to the resignation of several judges, including Justice Michael Gillespie (who resigned and went into exile 25 Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Who Guards the Guards? Violations by Law Enforcement Agencies in Zimbabwe, 2000 to 2006, (December 2006); see also The State of Justice in Zimbabwe, A Report to the International Council of Advocates and Barristers by Five Common Law Bars into the state of Justice in Zimbabwe, December 2004. 26 Address by Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay, January 8, 2001. 27 Robert Martin, “The rule of law in Zimbabwe,” The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, vol. 95, iss. 384, April 2006, p. 251. 28 Harold-Barry, Zimbabwe: The Past is the Future, p. 205. 29 Robert Martin, “The rule of law in Zimbabwe.” 30 Harold-Barry, Zimbabwe: The Past is the Future, p. 208. 31 The State of Justice in Zimbabwe, p. 50. “Our Hands Are Tied” 14