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CHRA takes Minister to court over failure to hold Harare council elections
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
June 09, 2005

CHRA is again taking the Minister of Local Government to the High Court for yet again violating the same law as in 2001, together with the Chairman of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and the several Commissioners appointed by the Minister to the Harare Commission. Papers have been served on all the respondents and we are hoping to have an urgent chamber hearing within the next day or two.

We should not be repeatedly forced to seek judicial enforcement of the clear requirements of the Urban Council Act. By law, elections for six vacant council seats in Harare should have been held in 2003 while the election for an Executive Mayor was due by June 2004. Further elections for another 30 to

34 council seats should have been held by November 2004. The Registrar General simply ignored and broke these laws and held no elections in Harare. The ZEC has assumed the responsibility for holding elections but done nothing to remedy these violations of the law in regard to Harare while holding local government elections in other urban centres.

On 9 December 2004, the Minister appointed his Commission for 24 months when the Act clearly only permits him to appoint such Commissions for a maximum of 6 months. He simply ignored that law. The Commissioners' term of office expired today. By law, the Commissioners were also obliged to ensure the lawbreaking by the electoral authorities was remedied before then and elections held. They have simply ignored that law. The Supreme Court has already ruled that a Commission is illegal after 6 months and that the Minister can not reappoint; so it seems from 10 June 2005, Harare will cease to have lawful local government. The Minister's unlawful reappointment of the Commission today is a clear admission that he erred in his initial appointment.

Given the failure of the ZEC, the Commissioners and the Minister to obey the laws of Zimbabwe, CHRA has asked the Court to order ZEC to immediately give its notice for elections to be held as quickly as possible, with polling by

9 July 2005. The High Court and Supreme Court have come to the residents' assistance in the same situation before and acted quickly against Commissioners behaving illegally. As the law has not been changed, we hope that the Court will do so again now. Without its urgent intervention or immediate action by ZEC, it seems the City will again face a protracted period of illegal government.

It is ironic and hypocritical that those Commissioners who have authorised a brutal assault upon residents in a supposed clean-up are failing to ensure that the electoral authorities act according to the requirements of the law and are themselves breaking the law through this neglect.

It is also distressing to note that while the mugabe regime has incorporated many of the SADC electoral principles into recent legislation and in theory accepts that local authorities derive their legitimacy through elections by citizens, it did so in full knowledge that Harare's elections were already overdue. Rather than implementing the principles and ensuring these overdue elections were held, it appointed a Commission instead for what is very clearly an illegal period and the Commissioners [which includes 2 lawyers] seem to accept that illegality.

Harare's residents have enjoyed only one year of elected local government in the past 6 years. The mugabe regime has demonstrated a complete contempt for democratic principles and seems intent on perpetuating an illegality in Harare. We therefore hope that the courts will hear our urgent application and compel the regime to comply with its legal duty. In the interim, we would point out that the reappointment of the Commission is clearly illegal and that it has no mandate either from the law or from residents. Any decisions it makes or instructions it may issue to municipal staff are null and void and no resident or employee is obliged to obey such unlawful regulations as may be made by the illegal Commission.

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