Zimbabwe’s High Court on Sunday ordered the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to refrain from recounting the results of March 29 elections because the presidential results have not yet been announced. The ruling followed an announcement by the ZEC that it would carry out a partial recount of votes.
Police have banned political rallies and the opposition has accused the authorities of waging a violent crackdown as Zimbabwe’s political crisis deepens nearly two weeks after a presidential election that produced no official winner. Zimbabwe’s neighbours hope to find a resolution on Saturday at an emergency summit in Zambia.
Zimbabwe raised doubts on Friday over whether President Robert Mugabe would attend an emergency regional summit on the weekend to discuss deepening concern over a post-election deadlock in the country. Officials had earlier said Mugabe was expected to attend the Lusaka summit on Saturday of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who says he won Zimbabwe’s election, has met South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki and pressed the key regional leader to use his influence to persuade President Robert Mugabe to step down, an opposition spokesperson said on Friday.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe faced mounting pressure on Thursday over presidential poll results as rival Morgan Tsvangirai ramped up his charm offensive ahead of a regional weekend summit on the crisis. While Mugabe has lain low at home, Tsvangirai has launched a diplomatic drive in recent days.
A judge on Wednesday wrapped up hearing an opposition petition demanding the immediate release of Zimbabwe’s presidential election results and said he would deliver his judgement on Monday. ”Conscious of the urgency of the matter, I should be ready for a judgement on Monday afternoon,” Justice Tendai Uchena told the High Court in Harare.
The Zimbabwe opposition’s bid to build up pressure on President Robert Mugabe after disputed polls bore fruit on Wednesday as plans were unveiled for a weekend summit to discuss the crisis. The president of neighbouring Zambia said he would gather his peers for talks on Saturday, aimed at breaking the deadlock that has persisted since the March 29 polls.
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai urged the leaders of Southern Africa on Wednesday to use their influence to help prevent his country from sliding into chaos following disputed elections. MDC lawyers, meanwhile, were trying to persuade the High Court to order the immediate release of the results of the March 29 presidential election.
Zimbabwe’s opposition slammed the ”deafening silence” on Tuesday of Africa in the aftermath of the country’s elections, warning of blood on the streets unless pressure is brought to bear on Robert Mugabe. Meanwhile, party lawyers argued at the High Court for an immediate announcement of the result of the presidential poll.
More than 60 mostly white Zimbabwean farmers have been evicted from their land by war veterans loyal to President Robert Mugabe since the weekend, a farmers’ union said on Tuesday. ”The situation is very severe. The evictions are continuing right round the country,” Commercial Farmers’ Union president Trevor Gifford said.
Zimbabwe awaited a key court ruling on Tuesday, which could order an end to the 10-day wait for presidential election results as pressure on veteran leader Robert Mugabe mounts. The High Court was due to rule on a petition by the opposition demanding the electoral commission immediately declare the outcome of the March 29 polls.
A Zimbabwean court has postponed until Tuesday a ruling on the opposition’s legal bid to force the immediate publication of the March 29 presidential election results, lawyers said. ”The matter has been postponed to tomorrow,” opposition lawyer Alec Muchadehama told journalists outside the High Court in Harare.
Zimbabwe’s war veterans have launched fresh invasions of the country’s few remaining white-owned farms as President Robert Mugabe appears to be falling back on the tested tactics of violence and raising racial tensions, in preparation for a run-off vote in the presidential election.
A Zimbabwe court delayed until Monday a ruling on whether it could order the release of presidential election results, which President Robert Mugabe is trying to hold up. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition says Mugabe wants to delay the result to help him find a way out of the biggest crisis of his 28-year rule.
South African satellite technician Sipho Maseko, who is being held in a Zimbabwean prison, has been admitted to St Anne’s Hospital in Harare after his blood-sugar levels reached danger levels, his employer, Globecast, said on Sunday. Globecast spokesperson Melanie Gibb said Maseko, a diabetic, was looked at by a doctor from the South African embassy.
Zimbabwe’s opposition went to court on Sunday to try to force the release of presidential election results after President Robert Mugabe’s party called for a delay and a recount. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has won the vote and should be declared president.
Zimbabwe sunk deeper into political stalemate on Sunday, with the opposition going to court to get election results released and President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party asking for a delay. Tensions between the two sides have risen sharply since the elections last weekend, fuelled by opposition suspicions Mugabe is preparing to rig the outcome.
A Zimbabwe court postponed a legal bid by the opposition to force the release of presidential election results on Saturday, after the electoral commission asked for more time to prepare its response. Earlier, armed police briefly prevented lawyers from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change from entering the High Court, although they were later allowed in.
Zimbabwe’s opposition was pushing for the High Court to consider an urgent petition on Saturday demanding the immediate release of results from last weekend’s presidential election, its lawyer said. ”We are doing everything in our powers to have it heard today but we are not expecting anything before lunchtime,” Alec Muchadehama said.
Zimbabwe was on Saturday facing a protracted battle between the opposition and President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party over the outcome of elections, with results still awaited a week on from the vote. Mugabe, still to make any public comment since last Saturday’s elections, was endorsed by his Zanu-PF party on Friday to stand in a run-off.
Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party on Friday decided President Robert Mugabe should contest a run-off vote against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai if neither wins a majority in the presidential election. The party politburo met for about five hours to discuss Mugabe’s next move in facing the greatest crisis of his 28-year rule.
The leader of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels has delayed signing a peace deal in a setback to efforts to end one of Africa’s longest conflicts, officials and sources involved in talks said on Tuesday. Fugitive LRA chief Joseph Kony was due to sign a final peace accord on Thursday near his hide-out, but was reported to be sick.
Egypt’s High Court on Monday rejected the latest bid by jailed opposition leader Ayman Nur to be released on medical grounds, his lawyer said, adding that he would now seek a presidential pardon. The court was due to release details of its verdict against the one-time pro-democracy darling of the West later.
Britain is preparing to expel hundreds of failed asylum-seekers back to Zimbabwe because the government believes they are at no ”general risk” in their home country. The mass programme of deportations could affect more than 1 000 Zimbabweans who have enjoyed protection under a moratorium on deportations.
Shamim ”Chippy” Shaik has been stripped of his doctorate degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal without reason, his brother and lawyer Yunis Shaik said on Sunday. Last year, media reports said that ”more than two-thirds” of Shaik’s 2003 PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the then-University of Natal had been plagiarised
No image available
/ 19 February 2008
Evictions have begun at the housing development in Delft illegally occupied by backyard dwellers, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction campaign said on Tuesday morning. A Cape High Court judge on Monday refused the more than 1 000 squatters leave to appeal against an earlier eviction order.
No image available
/ 16 February 2008
The Magistrate’s Commission should institute an investigation into the conduct of a magistrate who handled the case against immigrants arrested during a raid at the Central Methodist Church in the inner city, the Johannesburg High Court ruled on Friday.
No image available
/ 1 February 2008
The alleged British mastermind of a foiled coup in Equatorial Guinea has been deported from Zimbabwe to Malabo, even though he was still appealing against his extradition, his lawyer said on Friday. Jonathan Samkange said he had only learned that Simon Mann had already been flown out of Harare on Friday morning.
No image available
/ 31 January 2008
A court in Zimbabwe dismissed an appeal against the extradition of Simon Mann, a former British special forces officer accused of leading a coup plot to topple the government in the oil-rich West African nation of Equatorial Guinea, his lawyers said on Thursday. Mann’s lawyers had argued he would face torture and a likely death sentence if extradited Equatorial Guinea.
No image available
/ 31 January 2008
Zimbabwe’s High Court ruled on Wednesday that a former British special forces officer could be extradited to Equatorial Guinea to face coup-plot charges, rejecting arguments that he might be tortured. Simon Mann was jailed in 2004 and was briefly released after serving his sentence in May last year.
No image available
/ 26 January 2008
Residents of the impoverished Skielik community on Saturday buried three loved ones who were gunned down last week, allegedly by 18-year-old Johan Nel. Enoch Tshepo Motshelanoka (10), three-month-old Keditlhotse Elizabeth Moiphitlhi and her 31-year-old mother, Anna, were buried at the Swartruggens cemetery.
No image available
/ 24 January 2008
Zambia’s Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the deportation of a British writer who described President Levy Mwanawasa as a ”fool”, saying the punishment sought was ”disproportionate” to the offence. The full Bench of the court said Roy Clarke should be allowed to stay in Zambia.