Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Special Report Enforcing the Rule of Law in Zimbabwe election results.1 The Bar Council called on Government to protect Gubbay from ‘war veterans’ threatening to occupy his home. The Herald2 attributed to ‘misunderstandings between the Government and the judiciary’ the chief justice’s ‘early retirement’. (The Supreme Court had also ruled unconstitutional the September 2000 police raid on the MDC offices and the banning of political meetings on UZ campus.) Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku was sworn in as Acting Chief Justice in mid-March 2001. In April, participants in a closed seminar organised by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights reportedly called for judicial appointments to be free of political influence.3 Some 200 black lawyers petitioned the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) against Chidyausiku’s appointment as Chief Justice.4 But in August 2001 he was appointed substantively to the highest judicial post in the land, even though his reported desire to have all four sitting Supreme Court judges removed first was not met.5 Justice Chidyausiku has reportedly shocked lawyers over his recent conduct. While still Judge President of the High Court, he had purported to vary a Supreme Court ruling and allow one peasant farmer, Samson Mhuriro, 15 days to put together a class action on behalf of peasant occupiers of all commercial farms. The Supreme Court overruled his decision. Chidyausiku then used his opening of the 2001 Bulawayo High Court session to defend publicly his own judgment and criticise the Supreme Court for nullifying his decision. One press commentator suggested that ‘Goddie has become blinded by his allegiance to Zanu-PF that it is difficult to imagine him being impartial when presiding in a case in which the party or its government is a contestant’.6 The JSC was rumoured to have been split on their recommendation to the President on Chidyausiku’s appointment as Chief Justice. The lawyers who protested to the JSC were reportedly described by Information minister Jonathan Moyo as ‘so-called black lawyers … speaking for Rhodesians’, ‘the usual black Uncle Toms’ fronting for ‘the usual white liberal gang in the judiciary’. He urged them ‘to desist from compromising the judiciary by making unfounded, irresponsible and malicious political attacks on targeted individual judges’.7 The High Court The Constitution of Zimbabwe defines the High Court as a ‘superior court of record’ (s81(1)) and in its composition gives precedence to the Chief Justice over the Judge President ‘who shall, subject to the directions of the Chief Justice, be in charge of the High Court’ (s81(2)(b)). The High Court Act (no 29 of 1981, cap 7:06) specifies the court’s jurisdiction, powers of review and issues relating to appeal. The High Court has recently had to deal with two major and intensely ‘political’ sets of litigation: commercial farmers’ petitions to remove ‘invaders’ from their land; and – after the State 1 Parliamentary Debates 27,43:4374. The Herald 15.2.01. 3 The Standard 1.4.01. 4 The Standard 20.5.01. 5 The Sunday Mail 18.2.01; The Herald 9.3.01. 6 The Zimbabwe Independent 19.1.01. 7 The Herald 24.5.01, 27.6.01. 2 43