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Supreme
Court ruling on James Makamba's bail application
Media Monitoring
Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted of the Weekly Media Update
2004-8
Monday February 23rd - Sunday February
29th 2004
Nothing more
aptly demonstrates the government-controlled media's hypocrisy in
exposing government's disdain for the Constitution when formulating
self-serving laws than the manner in which they reported Supreme
Court Judge Vernada Ziyambi's ruling on James Makamba's bail application.
Makamba, facing
charges of externalizing foreign currency, was arrested on February
9th and remanded in custody under the newly gazetted Presidential
Powers (Temporary Measures) (Amendment of Criminal Procedure and
Evidence Act) Regulations of 2004.
In her judgement,
Justice Ziyambi ruled that the new regulations were "patently
unconstitutional" as they deprived judicial officers of the
discretion to grant the accused bail thereby reducing them to a
mere "rubber stamp to give a semblance of legality to the detention".
While The Daily Mirror, The Tribune and The Zimbabwe Independent
(27/2) gave prominence to this revelation, The Herald (27/2) buried
it deep in its story, Makamba bail application referred to High
Court. Worse still, the report was merely carried as a side story
to a report on Jane Mutasa's conviction for illegally dealing in
foreign currency under the same regulations.
ZBC and Chronicle
(27/2) censored Ziyambi's ruling altogether. Besides this, the government
media continued to suffocate reports exposing Zimbabwe's deteriorating
human rights record. For example, the government papers carried
only three stories out of the 17 reports on human rights abuses
carried by the private Press during the week.
Similarly, only
the privately owned radios exposed the country's poor human rights
record by reporting on 14 of the 15 reports recorded in the week.
ZBC carried
the other one. Even then, the report appeared as a denial of worsening
human rights abuses leveled against government by the international
community.
Despite this
denial, the situation on the ground proved otherwise. For example,
The Daily Mirror (25/2) reported that the police had disrupted a
Harare City Council meeting on the proposed 2004 budget using the
repressive Public Order and Security Act (POSA) as an excuse. But
as one councillor quoted by the paper pointed out, "according
to the provision of the Public Order and Security Act, (it's) political
gatherings, which the organisers ought to seek police clearance
for, not council meetings".
More worrying
was the revelation in The Herald (26/2) that when the council finally
met, their meeting was held "under heavy police presence amid
concerns on the security of (acting mayor) Ms (Sekesai) Makwavarara
and town clerk, Mr Nomutsa Chideya." In another related case
of police harassment, Studio 7 & SW Radio Africa (25/2), The
Manica Post (27/2), and The Standard (29/2) reported the arrest
and detention of National Constitutional Assembly chairman Lovemore
Madhuku while on his way to address a seminar in Mutare.
According to
The Standard, state security agents still "trailed" Madhuku
"into the conference venue where he was presenting a paper
on the security of the nation and human rights" after the police
had released him. The Manica Post however, seemed to justify Madhuku's
arrest by saying he "is well-known for organising anti-Government
demonstrations and is viewed as a security threat wherever he would
be".
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fact sheet
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