Back to Index

Tsvangirai acquittal - victory for justice
Comment, The Standard (Zimbabwe)
October 17, 2004

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/read.php?st_id=811

SUCH was the extent of the belief in the partisanship of the judiciary in this country that the Movement for Democratic change (MDC) party had prepared two statements before the verdict, ensuring a quick turnaround whatever the result was to be.

Even when they were confronted by the actual news that Morgan Tsvangirai had been acquitted, there was shocked disbelief in many circles and some people refused to believe it. "That cannot be" many were heard to say. This is hardly surprising when one considers that we are dealing essentially with a poisoned and polarised political environment.

Be that as it may, the point is that Tsvangirai has been acquitted, and thus absolved of any blame for the alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. One did not have to be a lawyer to conclude on the basis of evidence presented during the trial that the charges were illogical and completely unsupportable.

It was abundantly clear that international fraudster and fortune-hunter Ari Ben Menashe had framed the rather naive Tsvangirai and the charges were trumped-up and politically motivated.

While it is beyond the means of this newspaper to immediately gauge Ben Menashe's own reaction to the verdict, presumably in sharp contrast, most Zimbabweans received the news of Tsvangirai's court victory with audible gasps of relief.

Here was a man standing in the shadow of the gallows with the hostile eyes of Zanu PF upon him - and all right thinking people must thank God that justice has not only been done but has been seen to be done. God has answered not only the prayers of the Tsvangirai family but the prayers of all fair-minded people at home and abroad.

These are difficult times for the Opposition in Zimbabwe. And it is during these turbulent times that judges and magistrates should stay out of political differences that exist. And clearly here, Judge Paddington Garwe and the assessors have applied the law on proven facts and they have, as they should, jealously guarded the liberty and rights of citizens. More power to them!

Any other verdict would have been tantamount to a travesty of justice. The video tape in which Ari Ben Menashe claimed that the MDC leader plotted the assassination of President Mugabe was an amateurish piece of clock-and-dagger theatre that has no place in civilized human relations.

While modern electronic gadgets such as those used by the former Israeli spy to entrap Tsvangirai would ordinarily place undeniable evidence before the courts, to convict on the basis of the Menashe's video recording, described by all who saw it as grainy, blurred, inaudible among othe adjectives, could have been seriously undermined public confidence in the justice system. The truth was more mundane - and more revealing.

Indeed, to deduce an act of conspiracy and treason from the flimsy evidence that was the hallmark of the charges against Tsvangirai would have been to turn the very concept of justice on its head!

But more important is the fact that Tsvangirai's victory this first round is as charged with sorrow and doubt as it is with joy and gratitude. A second treason charge is hanging over his head and democratic forces everywhere cannot sleep easily. The battle is not over yet. Zimbabweans are in for a long haul.

It is important to emphasise the point that democracy is always and everywhere a job in progress. It goes back and forth.

We all thought that full-blown democracy was established in 1980. We were wrong - very wrong. Looking back on the past 24 years that Zimbabwe has been independent, it has been a case of two steps forward and three steps back.

And in our country today, freedom and democracy are as vulnerable as ever and justice and fair play in particular are in intensive care unit.

In Zanu PF's scheme of things at the moment, thinking differently is treasonous. This is the party which, with its much touted liberation war credentials, fought hard for the same freedoms that it is now busy trampling upon.

In the second treason charge, Tsvangirai's language could be more dramatic than its practical interpretation but the truth of the matter is that he was merely calling on Zimbabweans to peacefully demonstrate to show their discontent and disillusionment with the government's failure to resolve the country's economic calamity. What is so treasonous about that?

But this is the reality of our country today. Express a different opinion or view from Zanu PF's, then you are branded an enemy. How sad that former patriots have been transformed overnight into traitors!

Morgan Tsvangirai must continue to push on in the full knowledge and comforting belief that pain and a price attends progress and that God is on his side and so are men and women of goodwill nationally and internationally.

And in the judiciary we must continue to trust.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP