Too many cooks spoil the broth. MDC has certainly suffered the ill effects of having too many learned lawyers. One says one this the second says that and the third says something else that is neither this nor that and meanwhile the party has blundered from pillar to post as it is pulled in all direction in the ensuing confusion.
“I have just finished reading High Court judgement against the #MDC,” twittered MDC A Senator and lawyer David Coltart. “I am profoundly shocked by the reasoning of the learned Judge. The judgement is seriously flawed in numerous respects. The application should have been dismissed on several different grounds but wasn’t.”
The judgement is seriously flawed in numerous respects and yet you failed to name even one!
The application should have been dismissed on several different grounds and again he failed to name one such ground.
”For the avoidance of doubt the leader of the Democratic Movement is Advocate Chamisa. This a de facto and de jure fact .Two point six million Zimbabweans agreed with that position on 30 July 2018. A court of law can never be an electoral college,” commented Tendai Biti, an MDC A MP and lawyer.
“Of all forms of pervasion judicial Capture is most corrosive. The judiciary is at the center of upholding the rule of law, enforcing justice to avoid self redress. Where the judiciary puts itself in a position of ridicule, issues orders that are brutum fulmen, it undermines itself.”
The case was about the legality or otherwise of appointment of Nelson Chamisa and Elias Mudziri as MDC VPs and the ascension of the former to acting president following Morgan Tsvangirai’s death.
"The appointments of the second and third respondents (Chamisa and Mudzuri) as deputy presidents of the MDC party were unconstitutional and, therefore, null and void. The appointment of second respondent (Chamisa) as acting president, and president of the MDC party were unconstitutional and, therefore, null and void,” said High Court Justice Edith Mushore.
Judge Mushore could not have been more explicit what she was talking about and had nothing to do with the national elections that followed months later!
Anyone remotely familiar with Zimbabwe’s judiciary would agree are judiciary is not independent. One example “judiciary capture” was Justice George Chiweshe’s ruling that the 15 November 2017 military coup was “legal, justified and constitutional” to clear the way for swearing in of Emmerson Mnangagwa as new president.
To insinuate that the this case is another example of judiciary bias is laughable because Chamisa did NOT follow MDC’s own constitution in his hurry to seize power.
People like Tendai Biti and David Coltart should stop crying foul just because they do not like a court decision regardless of the facts. Chamisa was crowned president of MDC and the other to VPs, Mudziri and Khupe, were never given a chance to contest in a free, fair and credible elections.
If MDC cannot be trusted to hold free, fair and credible elections in house what more with outsiders.
Millions of Zimbabweans have suffered all manner of harassment, beating and rape and tens of thousands have lost their very lives in our fight for freedom and human rights including the right to free, fair and credible elections. Their suffering and the lost lives would all for nothing if all we do is remove corrupt, incompetent, vote rigging and murderous Zanu PF thugs and replace them with equally corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging MDC thugs.
2 comments:
“The quality and calibre of the lawyers is questionable. It's on paper only; they don't know the law. Just look at cases they lost through failing to observe simple steps required in law. Even a layman can teach them one or two things. That alone could the reason why they failed to dislodge Robert Mugabe for nearly 40years. You are giving the so called lawyers too much credit; they are simply bogus lawyers.”
I agree with you 100% the quality and calibre of our lawyers, just as with many other professionals, is disappointing. Zimbabwe is in this political and economic mess because our MDC leaders sold-out and the country’s professional community did not even raise a finger to hold the sell-outs to account. If those with high academic qualifications failed to see the seriousness of the MDC leaders selling out on reform one can hardly expect my aunt in the rural backwaters to do any better.
Whilst the nation has to fight hard to get Mnangagwa and Zanu PF to step down so we can finally implement the democratic reforms necessary for free, fair and credible elections; we will have to do so against the wishes of the likes of Tendai Biti and David Coltart. The two are some of the lucky few to win the few gravy train seats Zanu PF gave away; they will not want to lose their seats.
We not only have some of the poorest quality lawyers and politicians but in Biti and Coltart, we have sell-outs of the worst kind. The two know we need to implement the reforms to get out of the hell-on-earth we are stuck in, they are only pretending not to know because they have seats on the gravy train and that is all they care about!
The Obert Masaraure led Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz) and the Takavafira Zhou led Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe gave notice to the government that they wish to down chalks in 14 days if the government fails to open fresh wage talks.
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is real and it is getting worse. Since the start of the year, the RTGS$ has is one worth 1/5 of its value as the exchange rate to the green buck has dropped from 1:1 to 5:1. Even if one wants to go to work he/she cannot do so if their monthly wage is not enough to cover their transport cost let alone everything else!
Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will be no meaningful economic recovery; that is a fact.
Let me say it for the umpteenth time the vote rigging and thus illegitimate Zanu PF regime must step down to create the political space for the appointment of an interim administration that will be tasked to implement the democratic reforms and holding of free, fair and credible elections. The idea that Zanu PF can remain in power and be trusted to implement the reforms is barmy; as barmy as the expectation that teachers will continue to turn up for work every day even if their wages do not cover their transport cost!
Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is serious, the people are facing heart-breaking hardship and many are now dying for want of food, US$5 per month medicine, etc. The situation cannot continue like this for much longer. Zanu PF must step down now peacefully or the regime will be forced to step down through violent street protests or worse!
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