JUSTICE IN ZIMBABWE 9 ____________________________________________________________________ government’s wishes. “I don’t think it is desirable that we should have a puppet judiciary,” he said. “We should have an independent judiciary rather than one that panders to the wishes of government. We should have a judiciary that is prepared to make a decision that will be unpopular with the government.” At a judicial conference in April 2002 Mr Chidyausiku, now Chief Justice, quoted from an address given by Mrs Justice Denham of the Supreme Court of Ireland: “Judicial independence is a precious jewel of democracy, to be guarded and cherished for the benefit of the people it serves. It is a jewel of the State. It is fundamental to democracy and the rule of law that the judiciary be strong, to withstand pressure from any quarter. Yet the judiciary should be of their times and take account of the changing society within which judges hold office, while retaining the core principle of their independence. … The judiciary should absorb the light from the society it serves.” The next parts of this section will attempt to show how far the government of Zimbabwe is prepared to tolerate an independent judiciary, and how far the judiciary, including Mr Justice Chidyausiku, are prepared to go in asserting their independence. Attacks on judges General Starting in 2000 a sustained campaign was conducted against judges perceived to be anti-government. Senior politicians repeatedly attacked the judiciary. The Minister of Justice, Mr Patrick Chinamasa, said that the government would not rest until there was a complete overhaul of the judiciary. “Eurocentric” judges regarded as being in conflict with the other arms of government and perceived as constituting “the main opposition to the ruling party” would have to go. Judges should be politically correct, and if they behaved like “unguided missiles, I wish to emphatically state that we will push them out”. “The present composition of the judiciary,” he said, “reflects that the country is in a semi-colonial state, half free, half enslaved.”2 Vice-President Muzenda, at a by-election rally, warned white judges against continuing their policy of “haunting blacks and favouring whites”. It was a pity, he said, that the same white