All this harassment came to nothing on Monday28 September 2009 for ZPP Director Jestina Mukoko seen here being dragged to Court in January 2009The Constitutional Court of Zimbabwe has dealt a fatal blow to the political mischief of the Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa in collusion with Co-Minister of Home Affairs Kembo Mohadi, Police commissioner General Augustine Chihuri and Attorney General Jahannes Tomana.
The remnants of Zanu PF resistance to the coalition government initiative connived with Zanu PF stalwarts including its Supreme Leader, First Secretary, Head of State and “Government”, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces “His Excellency” “Comrade” Robert Gabriel Mugabe to roll out a ruthless purge of MDC-T and Civic Society activists through a judicial persecution initiative that ended in dismay on Monday 28 September 2009.
The ruthless Zanu PF merchants of oppression had between October and 23 December 2008rounded up scores of MDC and Civic Society activists in raids mounted during unsocial hours by a crack team of Law and Order Police and Central Intelligence Officers under the command of the trusted Superintendent Makendenge.
The abducted were held incommunicado in various prisons and detention centres where they claim they were tortured and subjected to torture, inhuman and degrading treatment including being denied food, water, blankets and being threatened with death unless they admitted to involvement in banditry and insurgence training.
Following his humiliating defeat in the March Presidential elections at the hands of MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai which he conceded to but refused to vacate office Robert Mugabe fronted a Military Junta that was vilified globally after he staged a bloody runoff Presidential election he ended the sole contestant having haunted his opponent out of the race by denying him campaigning space and butchering opponent’s supporters.
The failure to gain international legitimacy forced Mugabe and his Zanu PF party to seek Sadc mediation in talks with Morgan Tsvangirai and his victorious MDC party.
Having agreed to form the coalition government with Tsvangirai and Mutambara, problems had emerged with power sharing quotas.
Zanu PF wanted to expropriate all the critical Ministries for its Ministerial contingent and relegate the two MDC’s to manage the less critical ones.
The MDC-T would have none of that triggering the Zanu PF ire which saw the persecution of its supporters.
At least 41 perceived or real MDC-T supporters were abducted in a flexing of muscle by Mugabe to coerce MDC-T to accept to his unilateral allotment of Ministries and other appointments like Provincial Governors, Attorney General, Permanent secretaries and RBZ Governor.
Incensed the MDC-T responded by threatening a pullout from the GPA unless all its supporters that were missing and believed to be in the custody of State security agents were either released unconditionally or brought to Court before I January 2009and charged with the offences they were allegedly being detained for in accordance with the laws.
Most were brought to Court and granted bail but remained in detention for a further fortnight because the compromised Attorney General had invoked Section 23 of the Criminal Evidence and Procedures Act.
Seven others namely Gwenzi Kahiya, Lovemore Machokoto, Charles Muza, Ephraim Mabeka, Edmore Vangirayi, Peter Munyanyi, and Graham Matehwa remain unaccounted for to date.
The vindictive action by the AG in opposing the granting of bail to the accused was widely condemned by the MDC-T and many political commentators.
The detention officers meanwhile used all means possible to extract confessions from the detainees and produced a voluminous dossier supported by video footage of the detainees.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Media and Information and Publicity Secretary who doubles as Presidential spokesman George Charamba made some feeble noises based on the dossier of the so called confessions to banditry.
They alleged that the MDC-T leader and Prime Minister Designate Morgan Tsvangirai had set up Jonas Savimbi style training camps for insurgents in Botswana which he intends to unleash to force regime change illegally.
On that basis Zanu PF demanded that it preside over all Security Ministries including co-Ministering the disputed Home Affairs Ministry.
The dossier was submitted to Sadc after President Mugabe had reiterated the allegations at the SADC meeting in Swaziland and Sadc in turn appointed a team of investigators to verify the authenticity of Zanu PF claims of the existence of
Insurgent Training Camps in Botswana.
After reviewing the evidence South Africa President Jacob Zuma dismissed Zanu PF allegations against Botswana and the MDC-T leader as baseless.
The investigation team put together by Sadc to look into the allegations drew a blank but still the AG’s Office would not concede defeat.
The detainees were indicted to trial based on the same evidence that had already been dismissed as baseless and concocted by Sadc and the MDC-T respectively.
Trials would not take off as groups of the accused persons took turns to plead Constitutional rights infringements in the manner in which they had been arrested, detained and brought to Court.
Each group of accused in turn applied to the Constitutional Court to rule on the legality of the manner and conduct of the arresting details’ in upholding accused people’s constitutional rights in these cases.
The first of the applications to be determined involved the prominent former ZBC news anchor Jestina Mukoko who had graduated into the Zimbabwe Peace Project Director – a Human Rights watch group that had been targeted for its sterling efforts at exposing political excesses of the Junta.
In that matter where she is jointly charged with Concilia Chinanzvavana and 7 others of recruiting insurgents for the purpose of dethroning the Junta regime, the decision has gone against the State and she has been permanently set free by the highest court in the land.
While the court decision was to free only Jestina Mukoko, the precedents in her case can now be exploited by the others whose matters are still pending adjudication before the same Court.
This is a frightening prospect for the prosecution because already it has been forced to admit procedural violations in the manner one in a group of abductees has been treated during the arrest and appearance in court process.
Given that the same procedures were employed in the arrest and detention of Mukoko’s co-accused and or other political activists facing similar and or related accusations the chances of the State securing convictions have been severely dented if not completely diminished.
For many neutrals the allegations leveled against all the accused persons who were detained between September and December 2008 were politically inspired and without substance.
It would come as a major surprise if the Constitutional court was to arrive at a different decision than that it established in the matter involving Mukoko.
This is not to say that the Constitutional Court has completely tied its hands on the Mukoko decision because the State still has a chance to make a compelling case for each of the remaining accused and if it does it may well secure the right to put those accused people on their defenses.
The problem for Johannes Tomana and his prosecution team is however near insurmountable for to do so he must find a way to show the court that the accused were not abducted, held incommunicado, tortured to confess, denied basic freedoms to legal representation and in excess of prescribed limits without being brought to court and generally treated inhumanely all of which have been established in Mukoko’s case.
The same officers who botched Mukoko’s arrest and detention were involved in all the other cases and it is hard to believe they used different methodologies than those they applied in Mukoko’s case.
But undaunted Attorney General Johannes Tomana is putting a brave face against these odds and has vowed to proceed with prosecutions of the remaining accused while abiding by the Court’s ruling in respect of Mukoko.
The fact of the matter is the AG is in a quandary over the cases he should have boldly refused to entertain and avoided the embarrassment now engulfing his office and more importantly saved the nation the wasted resources channeled in persecuting
Zanu PF political opponents.
From a legal point of view the Constitutional Court determination can only be set aside by a Presidential decree which Mugabe has no stomach to pronounce.
Meanwhile the prospect of failure to secure convictions in remnant cases and attendant embarrassment to his office looms large yet to withdraw the matters at this late stage would be unthinkable given his refusal to listen to conventional wisdom against proceeding to prosecution with the flawed cases.
At this level of professionalism the only commendable and honourable redemption is for the AG to withdraw the cases and concurrently resign from his disputed post and apologise to the nation for his unprofessional conduct which was inspired by his self confessed association with Zanu PF.
Not that there is anyone who expects that kind of honourable conduct to come from a Zanu PF apologist like Tomana but the long term effects of Mukoko’s permanent stay of prosecution in a matter that was highly politicized from the onset are yet to be felt by Tomana.
Should he decide to hang in there against national negative sentiment over his suitability as the AG, he must prepare for the repercussions that will follow the demise of those that are using him to score cheap political points against opponents.
The brave victims of his ill advised vindictiveness will have their day over him in future and he will not love any of the actions that will be taken against him and his handlers in Zanu PF.
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