Letter from America 3-08-06

as the chief justice had no constitutional authority to appoint judges to the electoral court.
The bottom line is that the supreme court has endorsed what every Zimbabwean knows, namely, Mugabe and Zanu (PF) committed criminal fraud in the elections.
It is not by coincidence that Mugabe keeps repeating his everlasting gratitude to the army for keeping him and ZANU (PF) in power. Mugabe has never thanked the electorate for voting him into office. He knows very well that Zimbabwean voters overwhelmingly voted against him and his party.
During one of his Politburo meetings Mugabe was reported to have said in Shona “Dai panga pasina masoja tingadayi tiri kupi nhasi?” Translated: “Where would we be now if it was not for the army?”
Had the elections been free and fair Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC would have been in power since 2000.
Mugabe also knows there is irrefutable evidence about how he rigged elections. This is why he manipulated the courts into dragging on forever key hearings on the MDC challenge to the election results.
Mugabe will be the first to admit that he, his wife, family, relatives and sycophants in ZANU (PF) vipers’ den owe their lives, positions, wealth and political power to the army. This is why Zimbabwe is now being run by the army.
Just like the Boers in apartheid South Africa, Mugabe has created a laager or wagon encirclement of the army to protect his fellow criminals who are now plundering the country non-stop.
The supreme court has been a spectator to this systematic rape and plunder of Zimbabwe. Most, if not all, judges in Zimbabwe have been compromised and degraded into mouthpieces of Mugabe and Zanu (PF) instead of staunch and uncompromising defenders of the rule of law and the constitution.
One or two judges may have stood out head and shoulders above the rest as a strict custodians of the constitution. The rest of the supreme court judges have brought shame and disrepute to the bench.
Many of the judges have been beneficiaries of what Bishop Desmond Tutu once described as the gravy train. The Zimbabwean gravy train is an exclusive property of some of the greediest politicians in Zimbabwe’s history. Never have so few voracious criminals sucked Dracula -style the country bone dry! Like leeches, lice and vampires and blood sucking creatures Mugabe and Zanu (PF) are voraciously and selfishly draining the nation of its essential resources.
Incredible as it may sound, Ian Smith and the Rhodesian Front of the settler colonial era have, when compared to Mugabe and Zanu (PF), emerged clearly and unambiguously the lesser of two evils that have befallen Zimbabweans for over half a century.
The so-called independence for Zimbabweans in 1980 was a giant leap from the frying pan of Ian Smith’s dictatorship into the fire of Mugabe’s repression.
The other day I was watching an old Mukadota video shot in the early 1980s and could hardly believe Mukadota’s wife, Mai Rwizi, giving her husband Z$2 for a beer drink with friends. She demanded he should bring back change! And this was 26 years ago!
In 1980 one Zimbabwean dollar was worth US$1.6 and almost equivalent to the British pound. One could get a full meal of fish and chips for less than 50 Zimbabwean cents! Half a loaf of bread cost seven cents!
Zimbabwe became a class society long before 1980. This class structure was simply reinforced when independence came. There was a wholesale abandonment of the masses as Mugabe and his top officials started a program of self-aggrandizement.
The judiciary has traditionally belonged to the privileged and elite class. In the last six years the judiciary has been packed with Mugabe’s sycophants who have been handsomely rewarded for pandering to him in a clear desecration of their role as custodians of the law, the constitution and legal rights.
Any court judgments against Mugabe or his cronies – and these were few and far between – have not been enforced. Many of the worst Zanu (PF) criminals have not been brought to trial. On the other hand, court judgments in favour of Mugabe and against the opposition supporters have been vigorously enforced.
A big question is why the supreme court has now decided to give a judgment on the unconstitutionality of the electoral court. Why did it take so long to determine a case where there was a clear violation of the constitution? Why was this judgment made long after the six-month period within such cases must be adjudicated had expired?
Specifically, why was this judgment given on the eve of mass action against Mugabe?
It is very likely that this decision was taken with the full complicity of the Mugabe regime. Some insiders have revealed that very few court judgments are given without first consulting Mugabe.
The reason is not far to find. Mugabe is trying to distract attention and focus from the impending mass protest against him and his regime. Mugabe is trying to puncture the winds out of the protest sails. He is anxious to upstage and outmanoeuvre plans for mass protest.
It is reliably reported that Mugabe’s security chiefs have privately told him that there is now a real possibility of mass protest and the security forces may not be able to contain the outbreak of such protest for two reasons.
First, there is not enough manpower to control the size of the estimated number of protesters who might emerge. Secondly, there is deep suspicion that some members of the security forces might be reluctant to shoot Zimbabweans who are protesting for a decent living.
The vast majority of soldiers identify with the people’s struggle. It was reported not long ago that soldiers of the presidential guard were surviving by catching squirrels in the nearby botanical gardens. Mugabe cannot afford a mass protest. By allowing the supreme court ruling, he hopes that Zimbabweans will believe that he is prepared to hold a series of by-elections or even a new general election under a properly constituted electoral court. This would lead to a false optimism that may see many people avoid protesting in the hope that new opportunities for replacing Mugabe through the ballot are emerging. Don’t be fooled people!