Mbeki ‘ignored judges’ on Mugabe’s stolen poll
Business Day
12 May 2008
Michael Bleby and Karima Brown
PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki’s role as a mediator in the Zimbabwean crisis took
another knock yesterday after disclosures that he ignored the advice of
two
judges he commissioned to observe that country’s 2002 general elections.
Mbeki commissioned judges Sisi Khampepe and Dikgang Moseneke to observe
the
controversial Zimbabwean election in 2002 — which the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) still claims was rigged.
On their return the judges wrote a scathing re****t on the conduct of the
election and submitted it to Mbeki.
This was despite the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the
government
and the Southern African Development Community giving a thumbs up, saying
the election result “represented the will of the Zimbabwean people”.
Their re****t detailed the constitutional changes made by President Robert
Mugabe before the presidential election to give him sweeping powers to
amend
electoral laws.
It also said the failure of that country’s legal system to permit a valid
challenge to the results undermined these efforts.
The shortcomings in the 2002 election that returned Mugabe to power
included
a failure to properly constitute the Electoral Supervisory Commission; a
change in the Electoral Act to give Mugabe, rather than parliament, the
authority to alter electoral law; and the change of wording in the
Electoral
Act to stymie challenges to election findings.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai attempted to nullify the changes that Mugabe
had made to s ection 158 of the Electoral Act but the challenge was thrown
out by Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court a month after the election.
Matthew Walton, a lawyer acting for the MDC in SA, approached the local
courts demanding the re****t’s release.
But the MDC later said it had stopped the court action, out of respect for
the South African government’s right to keep certain matters private.
Neither Moseneke, now SA’s deputy chief justice, nor Khampepe could be
reached for comment.
Walton said he had written to Mbeki to request the re****t, but the
president’s
legal adviser had replied that it was never intended for publication and
could not be released as it dealt with relations between heads of state —
exempting it from SA’s Promotion of Access to Information Act.
Adv Jeremy Gauntlett, who represented the MDC in its challenge of the 2002
presidential election, said of the re****t: “There is a second secret
Khampepe re****t. It concerns a matter of no less im****tance: has Mugabe in
fact ruled Zimbabwe for the past six years in a do***ented breach of the
law
and his electorate’s will?”
In an article written exclusively for Business Day and published elsewhere
in the paper, Gauntlett said the tricks used in the 2002 re****t are likely
to be used again in the presidential runoff necessitated by the lack of a
clear winner in the March 29 elections.
The details of the re****t submitted to Mbeki six years ago make it almost
impossible he is unaware of the deceptions and illegalities perpetrated by
Mugabe to cling to power.
His unwillingness to blow the whistle on Mugabe — which dates back beyond
the 2002 poll — is the reason Tsvangirai last month asked Mbeki to step
down
as the lead negotiator for the Southern African Development Community’s
mediation efforts on Zimbabwe.
But while Tsvangirai has a difficult relation****p with Mbeki, behind the
scenes meetings between the MDC and Mbeki are continuing.
Business Day understands that Mbeki, who visited Mugabe last week to
resuscitate his mediation efforts, has been engaging the MDC in behind the
scenes talks intended to break the political impasse in Zimbabwe.
|
