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Disobedience of court orders
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
August 02, 2002

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights was most encouraged to read in The Herald of 27 July 2002 that President Mugabe had called for all judges to be "objective, impartial and shun personal vendettas against any member of society." This is in line with the oath of office taken by judicial officers upon their appointment and which forms the foundation of the independence of the Judiciary. We sincerely hope that judges do not need this reminder to perform their judicial functions objectively and within the constraints of the law.

We are, however, dismayed by the President’s position that it is acceptable to ignore or defy a judgment of any court in Zimbabwe where the affected party considers the outcome to have been the result of bias by the judicial officer. His intemperate public comments, made in the wake of Minister Chinamasa’s flagrant disregard of the High Court’s process, ignore procedures of review and appeal which are a fundamental part of our legal system and which protect aggrieved individuals from questionable and biased judgments. This protection is also available to the State where it feels that judgments are wrong or were made as a result of judicial bias.

We would like to remind the Executive that a party to litigation is never objective about the outcome: it is for that reason that an appellate structure is set up to allow an independent determination of the correctness of a judgment.

The President made the statements referred to in the presence of Members of Parliament at a reception to mark the opening of the new session of Parliament – an ideal platform for the Government to confirm its respect for the separation of powers and checks and balances between the three arms of government. We are concerned that the statements by the President indicate the Executive’s disinclination to protect the rule of law by respecting the independence of the Judiciary. We are disturbed that Members of Parliament, whose duty it is to rein in the Executive, did not take exception to the statements.

We are further concerned that the example by the President of Zimbabwe advocating disobedience of court process will lead the ordinary man in the street also to ignore orders of court where he subjectively feels that the order was made by a biased judicial officer. We take this opportunity to recommend to the public that they obey court orders or use the normal channels of appeal or review.

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