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Supreme Court readies itself for Maseko's case
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
March 24, 2011

The record of proceedings in prominent visual artist, Owen Maseko's Constitutional challenge, is now ready for the Supreme Court after the Bulawayo Provincial Magistrates Court furnished the Supreme Court with five copies of the record including two DVD's.

The Clerk of Court at the Bulawayo Provincial Magistrates Court recently wrote a letter to the Clerk of Court at the Supreme Court advising that the record of proceedings had been transcribed and was now complete and ready for use in Maseko's Constitutional challenge.

The visual artist was arrested in March 2010 for staging an exhibition in Bulawayo depicting the 1980's Matabeleland massacres carried out by troops loyal to President Robert Mugabe's previous government.

Maseko was accused of undermining the authority of or insulting the President and causing offence to persons of a particular race or religion.

His exhibition, which showcased paintings that explored the torture and massacres that characterised the civil unrest known as Gukurahundi, was forcibly shut down.

However, his trial was postponed indefinitely in September 2010 after Bulawayo Magistrate Ntombizodwa Mazhandu granted an application filed by Maseko's lawyers Lizwe Jamela, Nosimilo Chanayiwa and Jeremiah Bamu of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) for the Supreme Court to determine whether criminalising creative arts infringes on the freedom of expression and freedom of conscience.

Magistrate Mazhandu ruled that it was a fact that Gukurahundi - military killings of over 20 000 civillians in Matabeleland and Midlands-did happen in the early 80s.

In her ruling Magistrate Mazhandu referred the application filed by Maseko's lawyers to the Supreme Court after accepting that the application was not frivolous and vexatious.

Maseko's trial is currently on hold until the finalisation of the case in the Supreme Court.

The Constitutional Court will now determine whether or not bona fide works of artistic creativity can be subjected to prosecution under Section 31 and 33 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Chapter 9:23) without infringing on the provisions of Sections 18 (1), 19 (1) and 20 (1) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

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