Government prints money to pay judges Z$5 million a month

By Tichaona Sibanda
6 March 2007

The government has moved at speed to pamper the country’s disgruntled judiciary by buying each of the 27 High court judges new 4x4 all terrain twin-cabs, on top of a massive salary hike of Z$5 million per month, up from Z$600 000.

The new deal saw the judges also getting laptops and desktop computers barely a month after Judge President Justice Rita Makarau publicly complained bitterly over low salaries and poor working conditions.
The Sunday Times of South Africa said the vehicles, laptops and computers were provided by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, whose governor Gideon Gono, has no qualms about printing money to finance unbudgeted expenditure.

The majority of the judges, handpicked by Mugabe from a list of loyalists that include veterans of the country’s liberation war, are also proud recipients of the choicest farms seized from white commercial farmers under the controversial land reform programme. The all-terrain vehicles have come in handy, as the judges can use them to visit their farms during weekends.

The paper added that the Toyota IMV 4x4 turbo trucks each cost
US$63 000, foreign currency which is in desperately short supply.
David Mangota, the secretary for Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, said the trucks would enhance the capacity of the judiciary as well as improve their working conditions. But human rights lawyer Gabriel Shumba disagreed, saying the 4x4 vehicles ‘have nothing whatsoever to do with the administration and advancement of justice in Zimbabwe.’

‘The judiciary’s integrity is being undermined by the acceptance of these extra vehicles,’ said Shumba. Justice Makarau, in her maiden speech to mark the official opening of the 2007 legal year shook the Mugabe regime with her frank speech when she blamed the government for undermining the judiciary. She accused the government of starving the judiciary with resources and thereby reducing the esteemed Bench to ‘beggars.’

‘It is not in the tradition of the judiciary to publicly speak on any issue including calling attention to needs. I am breaking that tradition briefly and for today only, to agitate for better funding to the justice delivery system as a whole, generally and in particular, to the judiciary. It is wrong by any measure to make the judiciary beg for its sustenance. It is wrong to make the judiciary beg for resources from central government,’ Makarau said during her speech.