The report, which a High Court judge has acknowledged contains enough information to cast doubts on the legality of that poll, has remained a closely guarded secret for over ten years.
The Presidency was ordered to hand over the report to the Mail & Guardian newspaper in February, four years after the paper approached the courts to have the report released to the public. This was amid widespread speculation that the report contained evidence showing that the 2002 disputed election in Zimbabwe was not free or fair.
High Court Judge Joseph Raulinga, who took a ‘judicial peek’ into the details of the report, ruled in February that there was enough information to cast doubts, and ordered the President to hand it over within ten days.
But the Presidency then stated its intention to once again appeal. And last week Zuma’s office took steps to have the appeal heard before a full bench of the High Court. Judgment was reserved last Wednesday. But if this latest appeal fails, the Presidency could seek leave to challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court of Appeal once more, which could conceivably take the matter back to the Constitutional Court.
Meanwhile, Zuma has said there is a “very, very good atmosphere” in Zimbabwe ahead of the elections on Wednesday. Speaking during an unrelated press conference in South Africa on Monday, Zuma said Zimbabwe had done the best it could in the short time it had had to prepare.
"So we would say to the Zimbabweans, please have your elections in peace so that they can be declared free and fair, so that the Zimbabweans can then face the task of reconstructing Zimbabwe and indeed proving that democracy can come back to Zimbabwe. So we wish them well. We wish all the parties well in their campaign," he said. – SW Radio Africa News
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