The Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ), an independent and self-regulating professional body of Zimbabwean lawyers, is under increasing attack by the government of Zimbabwe, according to Nicole Fritz, director of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC).
She said two recent articles published in Zimbabwe’s The Sunday Mail on August 6 2006 and in the Herald on August 12 2006 made plain the Zimbabwean government’s intention to clamp down on the law society.
The first article, written by Tafataona Mahoso, chairperson of the government-controlled Media and Information Commission, and titled, “Lawyers’ body fights for return of Rhodesia”, accuses the LSZ of being sponsored by foreign powers.
Mahoso writes that “Since 1992, the LSZ has consistently encouraged and worked with external forces and organisations opposed to Zimbabwe’s African land-reclamation movement.”
Fritz commented: “It is particularly sinister that Mahoso exhorts Zimbabwe ‘to figure out what it wants government to do with the LSZ’, suggesting that government action against the LSZ is imminent, despite the fact that the law society’s independence and self-regulation is ensured by statute.”
The second article, titled “A Lawless Society”, was written under the by-line Nathanial Manheru, which is said to be the pseudonym of President Mugabe’s current spokesperson, George Charamba, widely tipped to be the country’s next Minister of Information.
“If anything,” said Fritz, “this subsequent article is even more disturbing. Not only does it make reference to a vague ‘operation’ intended against the LSZ, but it expresses the hope that the operation will be ‘replaced by its equally concussing sequel meant to make foreign opposition funding forbiddingly expensive.’
“This is a clear reference to Zimbabwe’s NGO Bill, passed in 2004, which bans foreign NGOs as well as foreign funding of local NGOs. Mugabe has yet to sign the Bill but Charamba seems to be signalling that he will soon do so.”
Following so close on each other, the articles seem a coordinated attempt both to discredit the LSZ in the eyes of ordinary Zimbabweans, but also to threaten the LSZ with more repressive action should it continue its opposition to the Zimbabwean government.
As Arnold Tsunga, secretary of the LSZ explained: “The legal profession has largely been standing in between the unbridled power of the state and the people of Zimbabwe and offering a safety net to human rights defenders facing persecution.
“It therefore comes as little surprise that the state is now angling itself for an attack on the independence and self regulation of the legal profession in Zimbabwe.” — I-Net Bridge