Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Special Report Enforcing the Rule of Law in Zimbabwe the press.1 Over 200 ‘war veterans’ disrupted proceedings at Harare Magistrate’s Court in protest against the further remand in custody of colleagues on kidnapping and extortion charges. After Bindura magistrate Tito Feyi Gweshuro sentenced 17 Zanu-PF supporters each to three years’ jail for public violence ahead of the July 2001 by-election there, other party supporters held ‘an allnight vigil’ outside his home and ‘forced his wife to accept the post of party treasurer’. 2 In Harare, the clerk of the magistrate’s court, Lydia Mutambirwa, refused to accept the bail of six million dollars granted by the court to Peter Lotriet and Patricia Mitchell. They spent two extra nights in jail. Their lawyer, Jonathan Samkange, noted that Ms. Mutambirwa had acted unlawfully in refusing to accept the money, since she had no right to refuse the court’s instruction. High Court judge Ben Hlatswayo later upheld the State’s appeal against the magistrate’s granting of bail, and enforced their remand in custody. Magistrates threatened to refuse additional requests for remand in custody when police dockets were not ready for prosecution. Other Courts Another four judges were appointed to the Labour Relations Tribunal, in an attempt to mitigate delayed justice and clear the huge backlog of some 3 000 appeals. The Urban Councils Association reportedly proposed to set up municipal courts to deal with bylaw infringements.3 There is no provision for such courts under the Urban Councils Act. Deputy Sheriffs’ Offices As early as 1999, Harare’s acting Messenger of Court had attributed what he called ‘flagrant disregard of the law’ to ‘loss of respect for the courts’ and their failure to punish contempt appropriately, which was already making it difficult for his office to function. The police recurrently failed to protect messengers of court delivering court documents, in Norton and elsewhere, particularly documents pertaining to land cases. Justice Devittie of the High Court had to order the commander of the Zimbabwe National Army to permit an authorised representative of the Deputy Sheriff’s office to enter Cranborne barracks in order to serve summons on the commander himself, General Constantine Chiwenga, Colonels Muhambi, Mukudoka and Charles Maredza, and Majors Mhonda and Shumba, in respect of the claim for damages of Z$4 million by the two illegally-detained and tortured journalists, Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto. The Messenger of Court had been refused entry in November 1999. During the first half of 2001, the Affirmative Action Group, with assistance from ‘war veterans’, attempted to harass the white Deputy Sheriffs of both Bulawayo and Mutare into early retirement, but later backed down in the Mutare case. 1 The Daily News 28.8.01; The Standard 9.9.01. The Standard 9.9.01. 3 The Herald 19.2.01. 2 46