Supreme Court upholds POSA in test case

By Lance Guma
01 December 2005

The Supreme Court has dismissed an application by MDC Makokoba MP, Thokozani Khupe who was challenging aspects of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA). Judges Misheck Cheda, Luke Malaba and Francis Bere sat in their Bulawayo’s chambers and threw out the appeal by Khupe who was seeking a declaration on the holding of private meetings.

In February this year she was arrested along with 80 other members of the party on allegations of holding an illegal meeting at her restaurant in the city. She unsuccessfully argued in the High Court that the meeting was private and could in no way be deemed illegal or require police clearance. Khupe as a result then appealed to the Supreme Court and sought a declaratory order that the holding of private meetings could not constitute a crime.

Observers in Bulawayo say the composition of the judges who lined up to hear the case was never encouraging from the beginning. Judges Misheck Cheda and Luke Malaba are accused of having close ties with the government and have all benefited from the land reform exercise. Decisions against the authorities as a result are thought to be hard to get. Particularly instructive they say is the refusal to disclose the reasons to dismiss the case by the judges.

In the presidential election petition filed by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, challenging Mugabe’s victory, Justice Ben Hlatshwayo dismissed the first part of the case without giving any reasons for doing so. The MDC has taken the matter to the Supreme Court to try and seek a remedy. Thokozani Khupe’s latest application follows in the footsteps of this trend of issuing incomplete judgements.

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