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The blurring of the lines between state, government and the party
Extract from Weekly Media Update No. 23
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
July 11, 2002

Things have come to a sorry pass in Zimbabwe when a mere state functionary can impugn the integrity of the Bench, defy a ruling from the highest court in the land and continue to make contemptuous utterances. But such Houdini-like conduct is what Zimbabweans have come to expect from government officials who routinely flout the law with impunity.

A senior CIO operative, Joseph Mwale, is still at large, harassing MDC activists in Chimanimani district in a sustained campaign of terror, in defiance of a warrant of arrest on a charge of murder. Two officials at Khami Prison have invited contempt of court charges after ignoring orders from the highest courts in the land to
release two MDC members accused of murdering a war veteran, Cain Nkala. They were, they said, awaiting orders from the state. Which state?

In the same week the Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa, who should know better, defied a warrant for his arrest after failing to appear in court to face contempt of court charges. He criticised the judge's decision to fetter him as a "gross abuse of judicial office" and said he would advise the Chief Justice to set up a tribunal to investigate the judge's conduct. The minister was charged with contempt of court over his criticism of a six-month jail term imposed on three Americans convicted of illegal possession of arms in 1999. The minister said his criticism of the judgment "was warranted, did not undermine the integrity of the court and did not therefore constitute contempt of court under any imagination". That his utterances amounted to pre-empting the judgment in a case where he is the accused was lost on the government-owned Herald in its report on Thursday, 4 July. So was the implied infringement of judicial independence in the minister's threat to raise the issue with the Chief Justice.

Who is Chinamasa to take such liberties with the law and attempt to usurp the authority of the courts? In any proper democracy the dignity of the judiciary is sacrosanct. That the state media fail to meet this requirement by repeating Chinamasa's outburst without providing any analytical context is a gross disservice to their
audiences.

In Zimbabwe the lines between state, government and the party are too often blurred in Zanu PF's campaign to perpetuate one-party rule. In this situation the police, the army and even hapless prison officials forget too easily that their loyalties should lie with the state and not the government of the day. Similarly in this twilight zone of divided loyalties, the boundary between the authority of the courts and the government gets bent and twisted to suit the interests of government.

It is saddening to observe how regular stand-offs between the executive and the judiciary, such as the ones reviewed in these columns, serve to undermine respect for the rule of law and citizens' faith in their courts and Constitution.

In the week The Daily News quoted the African Commission for Human and People's Rights as having raised "many issues with the government" in its visit to Zimbabwe. It noted there were concerns about the media, in particular "about the quality of work, bias, polarisation, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy and Public Order and Security Acts, the treatment of journalists by the government, arbitrary arrests
and harassment".

The leader of the delegation, Dr Jainaba Johm acknowledged the commission had come to Zimbabwe "because of the allegations of violations of human rights by law enforcement agencies and the threats to civil liberties as well as charges of invasions of the rule of law and concerns about the independence of the judiciary". It should be clear to her by now what account her commission should deliver to a waiting continent.

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