Court syndrome grips politicians
In football, the governing body, Fifa, insists that by all means possible clubs and players should avoid taking each other to court.
The rationale obviously is to have soccer played in its proper place, a football pitch and not in courtrooms.
However, in the world of politics, the same rule does not apply. Judging by the way things are happening in Zimbabwe, one would say it is high time the football rule was applied to politics.
Recently, Tsholotsho North MP Jonathan Moyo won a High Court case for defamation against Vice-President John Nkomo emanating from statements the latter uttered in the aftermath of the Tsholotsho Declaration. The case took five years during which Moyo left Zanu PF and rejoined it.
Just a week ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Lovemore Moyo, had been wrongly elected and had to be removed from office, after two years of sitting in that chair in Parliament.
This was after Jonathan Moyo had taken the case to court after the elections.
At the weekend, the Welshman Ncube-led MDC was breathing fire over the presence of the party’s deposed leader Arthur Mutambara in a meeting of the GNU principals.
They said this was in violation of a High Court ruling that barred Mutambara, who refused to step down as Deputy Prime Minister after he was kicked out of his party, from acting as “principal” or the leader of the MDC, which now wants to file charges against Mutambara for “contempt of court”.
On the other hand, a faction of the MDC has a case pending where it is alleging the congress where Ncube was elected party president was illegitimate.
In the run-up to Zapu’s congress towards the end of
last year, party leader Dumiso Dabengwa was taken to court by Agrippa Madlela over the use of the name and symbols of the party.
At the moment, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is also suing President Robert Mugabe over the unilateral appointment of provincial governors and judges which he says was “illegal”.
A few weeks ago, Zanu PF politiburo members Sikhanyiso Ndlovu and Tshinga Dube threatened to take each other to court over defamation claims.
Is this trend a mere reflection that Zimbabwe is fast becoming a litigious nation or we no longer have a breed of politicians that can settle political scores on the political field and not the courts?
The syndrome has cascaded to grassroots levels, where in the Bulawayo province some MDC-T members are reported to have taken each other to the police over allegations of harassment and violence.
Political analyst John Makumbe believes the rush to the courts by the politicians mirrors the attitude of Zimbabwean society as a whole.
“Generally, Zimbabweans are a very litigious people,” he said.
“They truly believe in the judiciary as a natural way of responding when there is a conflict, or appealing to South African President Jacob Zuma, Sadc or the AU to settle disputes instead of slugging it out in the political arena. In any case, every court decision that is subsequently made is challenged up to the Supreme Court and I bet you if there was anything higher than the Supreme Court, then that court would be inundated with political cases.”
Makumbe says this is a result of “cowardice” on the part of politicians and what was worrying was that even those courts which the political gladiators were running to “were failing to deliver justice” as they “are partisan”.
“It is becoming a trend that political battles spill into the judiciary for settlement, it is what I call ‘democratisation through litigation’,” he said.
Makumbe said the development was an indictment on the leadership of political parties in the country.
“It shows we do not have political leaders but political rulers with followers and not members, that is why they rush to the courts if something happens with their rulers,” he said.
A Bulawayo-based civic activist, Dumisani Nkomo, also believes“weak internal party systems without conflict resolution mechanisms” are the cause of the “legal rush”.
“As for inter-party conflicts, it might also be a reflection, for instance, of a dysfunctional framework for the monitoring of the implementation of the Global Political Agreement,” he says.
The Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee is supposed to handle issues relating to the GPA which gave birth to the power-sharing government.
Nkomo says politicians are also scared of the daunting task of forming a new political party with a completely new name when they split and have to go to court to fight to maintain names and symbols.
Interestingly, in the case of South Africa when there was a split in the ANC, the breakaway faction formed COPE, a different party altogether.
“Here people go to court because they don’t want to start new parties, and end up taking each other to court over names and symbols. That is why you have MDC, MDC-T and even MDC99,” says Nkomo.
Makumbe adds that the “litigious nature of Zimbabwean politicians” is unique in the world. “In other countries, if you are kicked out of a party that is the end of the story,” he says. “You do not think about taking that party to court.”
But for now, it is clear politicians have taken a backseat and reduced their political battles to a legal ring.
However, in the world of politics, the same rule does not apply. Judging by the way things are happening in Zimbabwe, one would say it is high time the football rule was applied to politics.
Recently, Tsholotsho North MP Jonathan Moyo won a High Court case for defamation against Vice-President John Nkomo emanating from statements the latter uttered in the aftermath of the Tsholotsho Declaration. The case took five years during which Moyo left Zanu PF and rejoined it.
Just a week ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Lovemore Moyo, had been wrongly elected and had to be removed from office, after two years of sitting in that chair in Parliament.
This was after Jonathan Moyo had taken the case to court after the elections.
At the weekend, the Welshman Ncube-led MDC was breathing fire over the presence of the party’s deposed leader Arthur Mutambara in a meeting of the GNU principals.
They said this was in violation of a High Court ruling that barred Mutambara, who refused to step down as Deputy Prime Minister after he was kicked out of his party, from acting as “principal” or the leader of the MDC, which now wants to file charges against Mutambara for “contempt of court”.
On the other hand, a faction of the MDC has a case pending where it is alleging the congress where Ncube was elected party president was illegitimate.
In the run-up to Zapu’s congress towards the end of
last year, party leader Dumiso Dabengwa was taken to court by Agrippa Madlela over the use of the name and symbols of the party.
At the moment, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is also suing President Robert Mugabe over the unilateral appointment of provincial governors and judges which he says was “illegal”.
A few weeks ago, Zanu PF politiburo members Sikhanyiso Ndlovu and Tshinga Dube threatened to take each other to court over defamation claims.
Is this trend a mere reflection that Zimbabwe is fast becoming a litigious nation or we no longer have a breed of politicians that can settle political scores on the political field and not the courts?
The syndrome has cascaded to grassroots levels, where in the Bulawayo province some MDC-T members are reported to have taken each other to the police over allegations of harassment and violence.
Political analyst John Makumbe believes the rush to the courts by the politicians mirrors the attitude of Zimbabwean society as a whole.
“Generally, Zimbabweans are a very litigious people,” he said.
“They truly believe in the judiciary as a natural way of responding when there is a conflict, or appealing to South African President Jacob Zuma, Sadc or the AU to settle disputes instead of slugging it out in the political arena. In any case, every court decision that is subsequently made is challenged up to the Supreme Court and I bet you if there was anything higher than the Supreme Court, then that court would be inundated with political cases.”
Makumbe says this is a result of “cowardice” on the part of politicians and what was worrying was that even those courts which the political gladiators were running to “were failing to deliver justice” as they “are partisan”.
“It is becoming a trend that political battles spill into the judiciary for settlement, it is what I call ‘democratisation through litigation’,” he said.
Makumbe said the development was an indictment on the leadership of political parties in the country.
“It shows we do not have political leaders but political rulers with followers and not members, that is why they rush to the courts if something happens with their rulers,” he said.
A Bulawayo-based civic activist, Dumisani Nkomo, also believes“weak internal party systems without conflict resolution mechanisms” are the cause of the “legal rush”.
“As for inter-party conflicts, it might also be a reflection, for instance, of a dysfunctional framework for the monitoring of the implementation of the Global Political Agreement,” he says.
The Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee is supposed to handle issues relating to the GPA which gave birth to the power-sharing government.
Nkomo says politicians are also scared of the daunting task of forming a new political party with a completely new name when they split and have to go to court to fight to maintain names and symbols.
Interestingly, in the case of South Africa when there was a split in the ANC, the breakaway faction formed COPE, a different party altogether.
“Here people go to court because they don’t want to start new parties, and end up taking each other to court over names and symbols. That is why you have MDC, MDC-T and even MDC99,” says Nkomo.
Makumbe adds that the “litigious nature of Zimbabwean politicians” is unique in the world. “In other countries, if you are kicked out of a party that is the end of the story,” he says. “You do not think about taking that party to court.”
But for now, it is clear politicians have taken a backseat and reduced their political battles to a legal ring.
