Con-Court buried justice to protect ED just as white judges did to protect Smith P Guramatunhu

Before independence it was common to hear of a white farmer beating up his black worker, tie him up with a rope and drag him around in his vehicle. The worker would die of his injuries. The court would fail to convict the white farmer of any crime “for lack of evidence”. The Police would have seen to it that the poor worker was buried complete with all the incriminating evidence, no post-mortem report, no witnesses, etc. The Judges would make heavy weather of the lack of evidence, although they could have easily demanded that the body to be exhumed, etc. They were playing their assigned role to perfection. 

Some things have changed in independence Zimbabwe others have not changed. Instead of the white colonial oppressors we got the Zanu PF ruling elite instead. The game of those in positions of power and authority committing serious crimes and the State Institutions rallying to hide the evidence and pervert the course of justice has continued and the victims of the injustice – the powerless and voiceless black majority - too have not change. 

What took place in our Con-Court on 25 August 2018 is nothing short of an re-enactment of the white farm vs black worker during the days of Ian Smith or be it the victim of the injustice was all the millions of ordinary Zimbabweans who continued to be denied their right to a free, fair and credible vote! 

Let me say it up front, loud and clear as a church bell rung in the quite morning; the 2018 Zimbabwe elections were rigged. 

“If the elections were rigged, then produce the evidence. MDC Alliance leader, Nelson Chamisa, challenged the election results claiming the elections were rigged but failed to produce the evidence in the Con-Court!” President Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF supporters and apologist will argue.

Nelson Chamisa and his fellow opposition friends were advised on the futility of contesting these elections without first making sure the democratic reforms necessary to stop Zanu PF rigging the election. Sadly they paid no heed to the warning. It was insane to go into these elections without something as basic as a clean and verified voters’ roll. Insane! And yet this is exactly what happened.

There were glaring irregularities such as ZEC’s failure to produce a clean and verified voters’ roll, the ballots cast in the presidential race exceeding those in the parliamentary race (the law stipulates that ZEC must keep a record of voters who take one ballot but not the other – which they did not), voting patterns that would suggest multiple voting, etc. 

The Con-Court judges acknowledged the irregularities but would not take the sworn evidence of the applicant, ZEC, etc. as permissible because there was no collaborating evidence from the sealed ballot boxes. Chamisa never requested the sealed ballot boxes to be opened and so all the other evidence was of no consequence.

“The best evidence in this instance would have been the contents of the ballot box themselves; that is the primary source evidence. Evidence of the contents of the ballot boxes compared to the announcements by the electoral commission, and the evidence within the applicant’s own knowledge, would have given the court a clear picture of any electoral malpractices, if any had occurred,” argued Con-Court Chief Justice Luke Malaba in his judgement. 

“No such proof was adduced by the applicant to support his allegations. The electoral law is designed to protect the vote. The protection of the ballot cast by every single citizen who participated in the election is fundamental.

“It is the one that the court should guard jealously.”

What nonsense. This is the equivalent of the Judge in the white farmer case refusing to exhume the murdered work out of respect of the dead. Surely the dead will be served best by the truth being uncovered and justice served. 

How is Con-Court protecting the citizen’s right to free, fair and credible elections by aiding and abating those denying the people that right by making sure the evidence of vote rigging remain buried! 

“In terms of section 93 subsection 4 sub-paragraph (a) of the Constitution, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is duly declared the winner of Presidential elections held on the 30th of July 2018,” concluded Chief Justice Malaba.

Justice Malaba, it is the interests of the ruling elite and not the common man and woman that you and your fellow Con-Court judges are guarding jealously! Zanu PF blatantly rigged last month’s elections and justice was not served by making sure the conclusive evidence of vote rigging was buried.