To the extent that Zimbabwe had become an authoritarian and a failed state, it is largely because of the judiciary that was successfully privatized by Mugabe. To this present day, the fraud of the judiciary continues to infringe upon the very fundamental principles of democracy. Judicial activism has been the chief enabler of Mugabe’s dictatorship. Other than Mugabe himself, Zimbabwe’s judiciary is the biggest fraud of our time.

There really is a war going on in Zimbabwe right now. The flimsy parliamentary majority currently enjoyed by MDC is fast shrinking. It is a product of a deliberately orchestrated plan by Mugabe and his lieutenants to regain control of Parliament by incarcerating and harassing MDC parliamentarians. At least for now, the strategy seems to be paying huge dividends.

At the latest count, a total of eight MDC parliamentarians are facing trumped up charges while five of them have already been convicted and suspended from Parliament. They are accused of crimes ranging from as ridiculous as misappropriating farm inputs to rape.

Deputy Minister of Youth Mr Thamsanqa Mahlangu is the latest entrant into this infernal cauldron of political machination aimed at emasculating the MDC. Recently, in bizarre circumstances smacking of a setup, Mr Mahlangu allegedly stole a cellphone belonging to Joseph Chinotimba, a well known psychopath, political fraud and unrepentant thug who personifies lawlessness.

Everyone has at some stage confused cellphones given the fact that they overwhelmingly look alike. For a minute, let’s assume that Mr Mahlangu, God forbid, is indeed a cellphone thief (preposterous as it may sound) and is subsequently convicted accordingly. But how does that compare to several looters and serial killers in Zanu PF (Parliamentarians, politicians and security apparatus alike). For all their crimes they never set foot in a courthouse or jail to face justice?

Their egregious transgressions ranging from crimes of economic mismanagement to gross human rights violations, dwarf any of those imaginary crimes leveled against MDC parliamentarians. Never mind the fact that they were unrestrained by law for the past 29 years of Mugabe’s misrule. Somewhere in Zimbabwe today, a murderer or a rapist is laughing. What a mockery of Zimbabwe’s judicial system!

In yet another outrageous development last week, we learnt that the Finance Minister received a bullet in the mail. We also know that with perfect impunity, Minister of Youth, Saviour (what?) Kasukuwere rented a group of thugs who terrorized government officials and ordinary people at the Constitutional Conference in broad daylight. In all civility, is it conceivable to anybody with an ounce of intelligence that such things can happen without the ‘blessing’ of law enforcement and judiciary? How else is terrorism defined?

It therefore comes as no surprise that the Deputy Minister of Youth will continue to languish in jail for weeks in conformity with Mugabe’s ‘gotcha politics’. Only in a banana republic of Zimbabwe where the justice system is dangerously comprised can such things happen.

All these are politically motivated threats and detentions which will only escalate. It’s all part and parcel of Zanu PF’s organized chaos in its desperation to subvert political reform such as constitutional re-writing process. For the judiciary it’s partly in aid of Mugabe’s constitutional limbo. Zanu PF knows that its influence is withering and time is also running out.

Mr Mahlangu’s accuser, Joseph Chinotimba, directed and deployed state-sponsored thugs who violently raided and looted private property especially farms. The same thugs unleashed a wave of terror throughout the country. In the process several people were killed, both black and white. In addition, as recent as 2008, Chinotimba lost a bid for Buhera Parliamentary seat whose desperate campaign was marred by death and destruction.

The grisly murder of Chokuse Mupango, MDC Chairman of Buhera’s Ward 26 directly implicated Chinotimba. As confirmed by witnesses and also according to Pishai Muchauraya, the current MP for Makoni South, “the sad thing is what they said after they realized he was dead. Chinotimba started calling him a pig, raving to the crowd that the pig had died before he had even started on him,” said Muchauraya. He also stated that“His body was loaded onto Chinotimba’s vehicle and was dropped off at the Birchenough Bridge Hospital mortuary.”

During the same time and within the same locality, many more defenseless Zimbabweans succumbed to Chinotimba’s terror. Chinotimba must be very familiar with names such as Beta Chokururuma, Godfrey Kauzani and Cain Nyeve, some of the victims who died painfully under his cult of bloodshed.

His notoriety for terrorizing and hounding judges particularly former Supreme Court Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay with the help of the then Attorney General Patrick Chinamasa is well documented.

“I have told him in no uncertain terms that he is putting his life at risk by remaining in office when we have made it clear we no longer want him. I told him to vacate his office today. If he does not go, we will declare war, “ warned Chinotimba.

In 2001 Justice Gubbay was ordered by Chinamasa to vacate his offices because he had become a ‘racist’ employed by the British intelligence “to overthrow the government.” Never mind his record of defending black nationalists during Ian Smith’s era. Was that not one of the most compelling reasons Mugabe appointed him to be the top judge in the first place?

The removal of Justice Gubbay was such an impeccable timing to coincide with the 2002 presidential elections widely anticipated to remove Mugabe through the ballot. It paved way for the political appointment of Chidyausiku, a long-time ally of Mugabe. There is no way Chief Justice Gubbay would have allowed such judicial decadence if he was still in charge. He was the same Chief Justice who berated government on farm invasions, helped Masiyiwa’s Econet Wireless to get a license and successfully argued in favor of abolishing government monopoly of telecommunications.

Judicial coup is at the epicenter of Zimbabwe’s misery today. What would Zimbabwe be like today if the courts agreed to set aside the fraudulent presidential election results of March 2002 and 2008?. Mugabe would have long gone together with his henchmen. Instead, Mugabe colluded with the judges to advance himself.

Zimbabwe would have brought to justice all those who raped and murdered, saving many lives in the process. It is this persistent failure by Zimbabwe’s judicial system to take stands in defense of rights and rule of law principles that continues to irk all the progressive people of Zimbabwe.
Where are the Iftikhar Chaudhrys, the Justice Gubbays and the Wilson Sanduras of our time Zimbabwe is yearning for?

To gain a perspective, Iftikhar Chaudhry is a national hero who challenged Pakistan’s government for all its wrongdoing and firmly stood up against human rights abuses as the country’s Supreme Court Chief Justice. He symbolizes resistance to the dictatorship of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf. Mr Chaudhry was recently reinstated having been sacked by in March 2007 by Musharraf.

Mr Chaudhry fiercely prevented Musharraf from overstaying in office at a time when he was desperate to ’stay put’ in violation of constitutional provisions. He is also famously known for his unambiguous warning to rogue nations that “nations and states which are based on dictatorship instead of the supremacy of the constitution, the rule of law and protection of basic rights get destroyed,”

Zimbabwe’s own Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku is the exact opposite of Mr Chaudhry. A strong ally of Mugabe, Chidyausiku became Chief of the Supreme Court in 2001 having served previously as Attorney General. In 2004, at the height of Jonathan Moyo’s madness as the Minister of (mis)Information, the nation’s top judge shamelessly endorsed AIPPA and MIC which called for compulsory accreditation and wanton punishment of journalists. On numerous occasions the judicial system in Zimbabwe has served to facilitate human rights violations.

However, Zimbabwe finds its solace and hope in Justice Sandura, an illustrious judge also famed for the no-nonsense Sandura Commission (named after him) of the 80’s. The Sandura Commission set up by Mugabe himself to investigate uncontrollable massive corruption in Government, shamed Mugabe and his cronies when it turned out to be apolitical. Later known as the Willowgate scandal, it exposed massive graft that financially prejudiced the nation. Five of Mugabe’s senior ministers were forced to resign while Minister Maurice Nyagumbo committed suicide (as the story goes).

Justice Wilson Sandura is one of the few judges in Zimbabwe who have steadfastly committed himself to discharge his “duties in accordance with judicial laws and to well and truly serve Zimbabwe as a judge without fear or favour.

“That is what I have done for the past 26 years and that is what I intend to continue to do until I retire.” These were his words upon receiving the prestigious Professor Walter Kamba Rule of Law Award recently.

In 2004, Justice Sandura, once branded “Gubbay residue” by the government clearly opposed Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku on AIPPA and MIC. Freedom of expression is “a cornerstone upon which the very existence of a democratic society rests,” said Sandura.

The majority of Zimbabwe’s judges sold out in exchange for Mugabe’s regular ‘free’ handouts that include Mercedez Benz and four-wheel drives, plasma TVs, cash and many other similar ‘politically motivated goodies’ dished out by Mugabe. More profoundly these judges have conveniently allowed Mugabe to strong-arm them. Oddly enough, these are unelected judges who are mere political appointees subject to removal by the same politicians who put them in office. So there are no problems of ethics there!

If Pakistan’s enduring protests are anything to learn from, for Zimbabwe, protesting this judicial scandal of our time is a national obligation. The democratic struggle against judicial activism must begin if the people are ever going to untangle their country from the clutches of Zanu PF’s totalitarian agenda.

The modern day Zimbabwe bears little resemblance to that which gallant freedom fighters like Herbert Chitepo and Josiah Tongogara died for, nor the one Kaguvi and Nehanda were publicly hanged for. The system is all about entrenching his “Majesty” at the expense of protecting individual rights of citizens.

The recent national healing and reconciliation ‘ceremony’ has turned out to be such a contemptuous political tokenism and a real joke. How is national healing possible amid such disturbing developments? True healing must also start with a national apology from Mugabe and his lieutenants for all the deaths, torture and suffering they caused for millions of Zimbabweans for so long.

Mugabe should be genuinely celebrating the inclusive government deal which has afforded him a safe escape route from answering charges of his crimes against humanity just like Charles Taylor. Who ever thought strongman like Charles Taylor would one day be sitting at the Hague (as he did this week) answering charges of eating human flesh at the height of his dictatorial madness as ‘emperor’ of Liberia?

Contrary to Abraham Lincoln’s famous quote about the need for a people-driven government, the contemporary Zimbabwe has a government of the judiciary, by the judiciary and for the judiciary. Even after Mugabe is long gone Zimbabweans will still grapple with the after-effects of his judicial muddling.

As the country is now at war with itself again, the domino effect of this miscarriage of justice could be cataclysmic starting with outright destabilization. The people of Zimbabwe cannot afford a return to brutality and dictatorship. Nothing short of confronting this judicial coup should be acceptable.

While it it imperative for MDC to strongly defend its own, this is also time for mass revulsion in opposition to a rotten system. Zimbabwe’s judiciary epitomizes a complete travesty of justice being perpetrated by cold-hearted politicians aided by incredibly mischievous judges on Mugabe’s payroll.

By  Dr Paul Mutuzu
www.nationalvision.wordpress.com