NEWS
Zimbabwe’s £118,000 outlay on judges’ wigs met with fury
Published
4 years agoon

Lawyers in Zimbabwe have hit out at a government decision to spend thousands of pounds on wigs made in England for local judges, saying the tradition evokes a colonial past that should not exist in modern Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s judicial services commission has placed an order for 64 wigs from Stanley Ley Legal Outfitters in London, at a cost of £118,400.
Zimbabweans reacted with anger on social media, questioning the wisdom of the government’s expenditure at a time when courtrooms are cramped and ill-equipped, the national economy is crumbling and, according to the World Food Programme, 63% of the population live below the poverty line.
Their sentiments were echoed by Dumisani Nkomo, chief executive of Bulawayo-based rights organisation Habakkuk Trust, who said: “These are misplaced priorities. We need to focus on bread and butter issues and avoid expenditure on unnecessary luxuries.”
After poor rains and erratic weather destroyed crops, almost 5.3 million people in Zimbabwe are facing food insecurity; in 2017, the country was ranked 108th out of the 119 included in the global hunger index.
The government has previously pledged to cut expenditure in response to rising food prices linked with the introduction of a new currency in February.
Lawyers in Harare said the government was wasting money on keeping a colonial tradition alive.
Beatrice Mtetwa, a senior lawyer in the capital, said Zimbabwe’s British colonial past remained embedded in its justice system.
“What surprises me in Zimbabwe is that we say everything against colonialism but we live more colonial than the colonisers themselves,” Mtetwa said.
“A normal litigant would be intimidated to get into a courtroom full of ridiculously dressed judges. Why can we not dress decently? If we want to wear wigs, why can’t we make them in our own way? Those wigs were meant for white judges – we look ridiculous.”
Luke Malaba, Zimbabwe’s chief justice, has reportedly insisted on the use of wigs during proceedings.
Some of the wigs, made from horsehair, were delivered last week.
Another top lawyer, Alec Muchadehama, said legal practitioners should drop the tradition and make courts more accessible to the general public.
“I think we should move away from that culture to where judges look like an ordinary man and so that the courts look humane. We should simply believe that if a judge appears wearing a suit, it will not make them less of a judge,” Muchadehama said.
The use of wigs has been abandoned in South Africa, Kenya and several other Commonwealth countries.
In Britain, judges have stopped wearing wigs when hearing civil and family cases, ending a centuries-old tradition.
“In my view, it’s a bit unnecessary. From an ideological point of view, those wigs take us back to the colonial era. They make our courts inaccessible by the ordinary man.
If the judicial services commission spends that money on rehabilitating dilapidated courts, that would make a lot of sense,” said Doug Coltart, a human rights lawyer. The Guardian
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Zimbabwe Vice President Kembo Mohadi resigned on Monday following local media reports he had engaged in improper conduct.
Kembo Mohadi, along with Constantino Chiwenga, was a deputy to President Emmerson Mnangagwa since 2018, but without a political power base, he was not seen as a potential successor to the president.
In a rare move by a public official in Zimbabwe, Kembo Mohadi said he had taken the decision to step down “not as a matter of cowardice but as a sign of demonstrating great respect to the office of the President”.
“I have been going through a soul-searching pilgrimage and realised that I need the space to deal with my problem outside the governance chair,” he said in a statement released by the Ministry of Information.
Local online media service ZimLive has in the past two weeks carried reports that Kembo Mohadi had improper sexual liaisons with married women, including one of his subordinates.
Mohadi, 70, denied the accusations last week saying this was part of a political plot against him. On Monday he continued to deny the accusations saying he would seek legal recourse.
BUSINESS
Zimbabwe agrees to pay $3.5 billion compensation to white farmers
Published
3 years agoon
29/07/2020
Zimbabwe agreed on Wednesday to pay $3.5 billion in compensation to Zimbabwe white farmers whose land was expropriated by the government to resettle black families, moving a step closer to resolving one the most divisive policies of the Robert Mugabe era.
But the southern African nation does not have the money and will issue long term bonds and jointly approach international donors with the farmers to raise funding, according to the compensation agreement.
Two decades ago Mugabe’s government carried out at times violent evictions of 4,500 Zimbabwe white farmers and redistributed the land to around 300,000 Black families, arguing it was redressing colonial land imbalances.
The agreement signed at President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s State House offices in Harare showed white farmers would be compensated for infrastructure on the farms and not the land itself, as per the national constitution.
Details of how much money each farmer, or their descendants, given the time elapsed since the farms were seized, was likely to get were not yet clear, but the government has said it would prioritise the elderly when making the settlements.
Farmers would receive 50% of the compensation after a year and the balance within five years. Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube and acting Agriculture Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri signed on behalf of the government, while farmers unions and a foreign consortium that undertook valuations also penned the agreement.
“As Zimbabweans, we have chosen to resolve this long-outstanding issue,” said Andrew Pascoe, head of the Commercial Farmers Union representing Zimbabwe white farmers.
The land seizures were one of Mugabe’s signature policies that soured ties with the West. Mugabe, who was ousted in a coup in 2017 and died last year, accused the West of imposing sanctions on his government as punishment.
The programme still divides public opinion in Zimbabwe as opponents see it as a partisan process that left the country struggling to feed itself. But its supporters say it has empowered landless Black people. Mnangagwa said the land reform could not be reversed but paying of compensation was key to mending ties with the West. Reuters
NEWS
Chinamasa calls U.S. ambassador ‘thug’ as anti-government protests loom
Published
3 years agoon
29/07/2020
Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party on Monday called the United States ambassador a “thug” and accused him of funding the opposition ahead of this week’s planned anti-government protests that authorities say are meant to overthrow the government.
Without providing evidence, ZANU-PF spokesman Patrick Chinamasa told reporters that U.S. ambassador to Harare, Brian Nichols, was involved in subversive activities to topple President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.
Chinamasa’s comments echo the Robert Mugabe era, where the ZANU-PF government regularly accused the United States and Britain of seeking to dislodge it from power.
“He (Nichols) continues to engage in acts of undermining this republic and if he does so, if he continues engaging in acts of mobilising and funding disturbances, coordinating violence and training insurgents, our leadership will not hesitate to give him marching orders,” Chinamasa said.
“Diplomats should not behave like thugs, and Brian Nichols is a thug.”
The U.S. embassy in Harare did not immediately respond to Chinamasa’s comments. Political tensions are rising fast in the southern African nation after activists called for demonstrations on July 31 against government corruption, which they blame for deepening the worst economic crisis in more than a decade.
Last month, the government summoned Nichols after a senior White House official said Zimbabwe was among “foreign adversaries” using the civil unrest in the United States following the death of George Floyd to interfere in U.S. affairs.
The U.S., Britain, E.U. embassies and the United Nations have all criticised Zimbabwe for the arrest of journalists and political challengers.
Relations between Zimbabwe and the West were promising when Mnangagwa replaced Mugabe after a coup in 2017, but have soured over the government’s human rights record.
Patrick Chinamasa urged party supporters to defend themselves from protesters and avoid a repeat of the deadly violence that followed post-election demonstrations in August 2018 and the January 2019 protests over a steep fuel price hike.“No, this time no. Use any means at your disposal to defend yourselves,” Chinamasa said. Organisers say this week’s protests will be peaceful. Reuters

Kembo Mohadi resigns amid sex scandal

Zimbabwe agrees to pay $3.5 billion compensation to white farmers

Chinamasa calls U.S. ambassador ‘thug’ as anti-government protests loom
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