Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa was given until January this year to show cause why the law should not be scrapped. The Constitutional Court considered his submission irrelevant and upheld the unconstitutionality of the statutory provision.
This is where it starts to make sense. Mnangagwa, as a lawyer – and justice minister for that matter – could have successfully defended the law. But he chose not to and instead made a defective submission to the court. With the benefit of hindsight, that appears deliberate.
Messy
The question is: Why would he want criminal defamation to go? The answer is that sooner, rather than later, the absence of the infamous legal provision would come in handy in the Zanu (PF) succession war. There is abundant support for this line of thinking. Criminal defamation makes it difficult for a media house to assassinate political rivals – because people have immediate recourse to the courts. So where one wants to carry out sustained attacks on others, the whole thing becomes messy.
With the 2014 Zanu (PF) congress approaching, and President Robert Mugabe limping into the limelight of his political career, the Mnangagwa faction needed to use the official media to fight against Vice President Joice Mujuru and her supporters. For several months now, every front page of every government-controlled newspaper has been dominated by anti-Mujuru headlines.
The stories have been appalling to say the least – full of hate speech and unrestrained in their personal attacks on Mujuru and individuals linked to her. The reporters at Zimpapers have become so brazen in their attacks – throwing all ethics out of the window. It is clear that they have been whipped up to write this type of gutter journalism – which should not even be dignified by the name journalism.
Gory allegations
In spite of the gory allegations the stories contain, there is hardly any effort to get the other side of the story. Mujuru and her supporters have been accused of all sorts of things—from theft to corruption and treason, with ever being given an opportunity to defend themselves. It is obvious that the main plot is to damage their reputations beyond all possible repair.
They have nowhere to escape to. The legal escape route has been closed because they cannot seek prosecution. Going the civil route is still an option, but who doesn’t know how long it takes for someone to get justice from the courts in Zimbabwe today?
Even if the Mujuru faction were to seek compensation and reparation through the civil courts, their cases would be finalised well after congress and a new cabinet has been established. By this time, the Mnangagwa faction would have achieved its goals of pushing out Mujuru and her comrades without ever being given bogged down by the law.
Stunning coincidence
It is a stunning coincidence that not a single person from the Mnangagwa faction has been reported in bad light in the official media for months. They are the political saints and those from Mujuru’s camp are the villains.
The timing of the scrapping of criminal defamation is fishy. Journalists from the independent media made an application against this law in 2009. But nothing happened until a new cabinet was appointed last year – giving Mnangagwa the justice ministry and Jonathan Moyo, his ally, the information portfolio. That was after the 2013 general elections that I still believe Zanu (PF) stole.
With a decisive congress beckoning, criminal defamation had to be struck off to give the Mnangagwa faction a free hand in the battle to wrest power from Mujuru.
Post published in: Mugabe Succession