OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Tuesday 8.00pm.
MILITANT self-styled war veterans waited in their hundreds outside the High Court in Harare the entire day on Tuesday, while their leader, Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi, stood trial for alleged fraud.
The veterans, joined by youths dressed in T-shirts of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party, cheered Hunzvi each time he appeared outside the court during breaks in proceedings, and at the end of the day carried him shoulder-high to a waiting car.
Police eventually allowed about 80 supporters into courtroom “A” where the trial, which began in November, resumed before Judge Paddington Garwe.
The others waited outside, chanting songs in praise of Hunzvi, who is leader of the Zimbabwe Liberation War Veterans Association — comprising ex-combatants who fought a liberation war in the 1970s against white rule in then-Rhodesia.
President Robert Mugabe, whose offices are just opposite the court, was given a rousing welcome when he arrived for a cabinet meeting just before the trial recommenced.
The state quickly wound up its case against Hunzvi, who is accused of defrauding the War Victims Compensation Fund of more than 400000 Zimbabwe dollars (about $10000) between March and September 1995.
Hunzvi’s lawyer, Francois Joubert, then applied for the dismissal of the case against the war veterans leader, who shot to prominence in 1997 when he forced Mugabe to award war veterans hefty gratuities and early this year when he urged his supporters to occupy more than 1000 white farms.
The occupations have resulted in widescale violence, leaving more than 14 people dead. On top of the worst economic crisis facing Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, this has plunged the southern African country into crisis.
Joubert argued that the state’s chief claim against 50-year-old Hunzvi, that he forged medical certificates showing he had suffered injuries during the liberation war, was without substance.
A key state witness, Joubert argued, had backtracked under cross-examination and had declared the certificates to be “genuine”.
State prosecutor Nathaniel Sibanda countered that enough medical experts had testified at the trial to show that the injuries Hunzvi claimed to have sustained — loss of hearing, loss of eyesight and bronchitis — did not exist.
Sibanda noted that Hunzvi was in court sporting a hearing aid — which he does not normally wear — despite an opinion by an ear, nose and throat expert that his hearing is normal.
He also pointed out that disabilities listed in the four claims for compensation Hunzvi had lodged, when added together, would render him “117 percent disabled.”
Hunzvi, he added, had claimed he suffered the injuries when Rhodesian forces launched a raid on a ZAPU-PF base in Lusaka, Zambia in 1978, but that ZAPU-PF witnesses called said they did not recall such an attack taking place.
Proceedings, which have been marked by heated exchanges between Joubert and Sibanda, continue on Wednesday.
Hunzvi, who is out on bail, has another pending charge of defrauding two war veterans’ companies of 2,7-million Zimbabwe dollar (about $69000). — AFP