CRIS CHINAKA, Harare | Thursday
ZIMBABWE’S justice minister has lashed out at white and Asian judges, warning that their opposition to President Robert Mugabe’s seizure of white-owned land could plunge the country into war.
Minister Patrick Chinamasa said in an address reported by state radio that the white and Asian judges could not serve Mugabe’s democratic state after having served Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith’s white government prior to independence in 1980.
In a speech to a law faculty summer school in eastern Zimbabwe last week, which was reported on Wednesday, Chinamasa warned the courts not to oppose the government’s controversial farm seizure programme.
”Closing or frustrating the legal process will send a clear message that resolution of the land issue would have to be through the resuscitation of the armed struggle pitting the landless and war veterans against land owners,” he said.
Chinamasa said the conduct and rulings of some judges, their work history under Smith and their failure to mix socially with blacks had left the government wondering whether they could faithfully serve Mugabe’s administration.
”How can personnel so high up in the pecking order of a regime grounded in racism faithfully serve a democratic state?” he asked.
Chinamasa named five white and Asian judges, including Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay, who, he said, were tainted by their association with Smith’s white regime.
The judges would not comment on Chinamasa’s speech, but earlier this year replied to a string of attacks by government leaders, including Mugabe, with a terse statement saying they were professional.
Zimbabwe’s judiciary – with a majority of black judges – is highly regarded internationally and locally. The judges have handed down several rulings against Mugabe and his followers.
Political analysts say their independence has proved inconvenient to the government, especially in disputes over Mugabe’s drive since February to seize hundreds of white farms without compensation.
The government has ignored a number of court orders to evict self-styled 1970s independence war veterans who have occupied white farms since February in support of Mugabe’s programme. – Reuters
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