JUSTICE IN ZIMBABWE 85 ____________________________________________________________________ enforced. The CHRA was therefore forced to accept the President’s decision on the election dates, knowing that it was likely to cause serious problems for Harare voters. Conclusion The majority decision of the Supreme Court which closed this series of cases indicates once again a willingness on the part of the newly-appointed judges to use technical procedural grounds to avoid deciding the real issues in a case, where a decision would be politically sensitive. Had the majority judges squarely faced the issue in this case, namely whether or not the President’s notice was valid, they would almost certainly have had to follow Chinhengo J and Ebrahim JA and declare it ultra vires — even counsel for the Registrar-General had conceded it was invalid. But such a declaration would have meant thwarting the President. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that that was a consideration which, at least in part, motivated the judges’ decision. Topic 4 4. THE NKALA AND LUPHAHLA MURDERS The murders Cain Nkala, a war veteran leader and senior ZANU (PF) official in Bulawayo. Limukani Luphahla was a ZANU (PF) official in the Lupane district of Matabeleland. Luphahla and then Nkala were murdered in November 2001. Nkala was kidnapped during daylight hours from his home in Bulawayo. His wife was present when the kidnapping took place and can presumably identify the persons who took away her husband. However, Mrs Nkala has apparently not been allowed to speak to the press since then.138 Government reaction In the aftermath of the death of Cain Nkala the state media engaged in inflammatory hate speech against the MDC, constantly referring to the MDC as a terrorist organisation. The government-controlled Herald compared the MDC with the Nazis,