Yes, calls for security sector, media and electoral reform all make sense, but one thing our reform lobbyists seem to have missed is that, even if all these changes were to fall straight from heaven, they would come to nought if the judiciary is left as it is today.
Judicial reform, by the way, does not simply mean removing partisan judges from the bench. This would be too ad hoc. Reform is supposed to be systematic. It has to address the form and structure of an institution, not just temporary features like who is currently on the bench.
Yes, there have been concerns about biased judges since the turn of the century. The reader will remember the uproar that accompanied the removal of white justices from the High and Supreme Courts when the issue of land redistribution took centre stage from 2000.
Zanu (PF) could not trust them when it came to presiding over land disputes that arose from the untidy, hurried and knee-jerk fast track land re-allocation programme. They had to be replaced with black judges with a proven track record of toeing the party line. This remains the situation today.
But, the composition of the bench and magistrates courts is not what sorely worries me here. It is the judicial systems themselves. For example: This newspaper recently published a story relating to a botched diamond deal involving Anjin, BancABC and a Belgian mogul, Ali Mackie, that is now at the Supreme Court.
This case, by the way, has been placed in the furthest corner of the dark room at the highest court in the land, where judges have to squint through the cloud of mystery surrounding the matter. The media has been gagged from reporting on the matter.
Once a case has been placed in a dark vault like this one, all is left to speculation, and it is every person’s guess why the courts decided to shroud certain proceedings. What I can say with great certainty is that someone is trying to hide something somewhere for some reason.
Also, still fresh in the news is how the courts barred the Anti-Corruption Commission from searching the offices of several top government officials, among them Saviour Kasukuwere and Obert Mpofu, the Indigenisation and Mines ministers respectively, who are clearly among the richest individuals in town.
The courts also barred ZACC from searching the offices of the Zimbabwe Mining Development Company that owns half the pie in every diamond mine etc and the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board.
The ministers, NIEEB and ZMDC are rumoured to be involved in high level corruption, just as there are rumours about the Anjin-Mackie deal being a dirty affair also involving prominent politicians.
I hope Mpofu and Kasukuwere will not be fingered as part of the diamond game as well, as that would scare the wits out of me. In the past, of course, we have had people like Emmerson Mnangagwa applying to have the media’s lips sealed in cases like shady gold dealings in Kwekwe.
Of course, it is legally in order for an individual or institution to apply to black-out the public from accessing information on a particular on-going case and it is within the jurisdiction of the courts to grant such an order in favour of the applicant.
But this is where my quarrel with the system resides. We should remove this kind of provision from the judicial process as it is clear that it is being abused. I am certainly not comfortable with the fact that the courts black out the public or investigating agencies mostly where high profile people are concerned.
At that rate, Zimbabwe, currently ranked one of the most corrupt countries in the world, will be in the sewers before we know it, courtesy of a manipulated and sick judiciary. A sick judiciary begets a sick nation. – For feedback, please write to majonitt@gmail.com
Post published in: Analysis