Public interest in the treason trial of Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, which held Zimbabweans spellbound when it began in February, has fizzled out, with only a handful of people now attending the daily court sessions at the high court in Harare.
In fact, another trial involving a well-known preacher accused of raping some of his congregants, had been attracting more people before it adjourned at the end of February.
Tsvangirai and two of his senior lieutenants, Welshman Ncube and Renson Gasela, are charged with high treason.
The trio were allegedly videotaped by former Israeli spy Ari ben Menashe trying to arrange for President Robert Mugabe’s ”elimination”.
In the second week of March the small courtroom where the trial is being heard was half empty, with only supporters of Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), his wife and relatives, the battery of lawyers for the state and the defence and a few journalists and foreign diplomats attending.
An MDC official said few people were now attending the court case because some members of the party, such as its women’s league, were being denied entry into court by police who told them the courtroom was full.
Tsvangirai’s trial attracted hundreds of people, including the British high commissioner and the United States ambassador in Harare, when it started in February.
Zimbabwean riot police forcibly turned away hundreds of MDC supporters and journalists because they said the courtroom was too small to accommodate all who wanted to attend the trial.
This week those attending the hearing heard Tara Thomas, Ben Menashe’s personal assistant, testify.
Thomas, who is on crutches after an accident in Canada, told Judge Paddington Garwe, she could not be sure the MDC was involved in the incident in Ottawa when she was almost run over by a motorist.
Ben Menashe, who stepped down from the witness stand earlier in the week after a record 22 days, testified that the MDC had tried to kill Thomas.
Thomas’s testimony was stopped on Wednesday afternoon after the defence lawyer, South African advocate George Bizos, asked why she wanted to use notes written down on her affidavit during cross-examination.
”The witness cannot go into court with notes for the purpose of giving evidence. She can’t be allowed to do so,” said Bizos. Garwe adjourned the hearing, saying he needed time to make a ruling on Bizos’s objection.