JUSTICE IN ZIMBABWE 81 ____________________________________________________________________ of mayoral and council elections in Harare to elect councillors to replace the Commissioners appointed by the Minister. The court rejected her application on the ground that she lacked legal standing.126 The High Court and Supreme Court order elections to be held In November 2001 the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) won a High Court order compelling the Registrar-General of Elections to hold council elections in Harare before the end of December 2001.127 In granting the order, Hungwe J said: “In any democratic society, the need for regular free and fair elections has never been doubted.” The Registrar-General noted an appeal128 but, because it was clear that elections should be held urgently, the High Court specified that its order would be binding pending appeal. The Registrar-General then made an urgent application to the Supreme Court to have the High Court’s order stayed pending appeal. Sitting alone on the afternoon of Sunday 25 November 2001 and without the High Court record before him, the Chief Justice, Mr Godfrey Chidyausiku, granted the application and altered the High Court order so that it would not be binding pending appeal. According to the CHRA’s lawyers, they had been given the Registrar-General’s application fifteen minutes before the hearing. They complained that this brief hearing at short notice, without reference to any documents filed of record, was not a fair hearing. They further alleged that the government papers materially misstated the High Court Order, and that there was no urgent need for it to be heard on that day. They also requested the Chief Justice to recuse himself because of dealings in land which they alleged he had had with the commission that was then running the City of Harare (commission members were parties to the case). It is not appropriate to recite here the allegations made against the Chief Justice; it is sufficient to say that they illustrate the need for a generally accepted code of conduct for judges and other judicial officers which would specify precisely what financial and business dealings they may and may not engage in. The Chief Justice refused to recuse himself, saying he knew about the dealings he had with the commission.