Zimbabwe government travel ban policy in shambles

By Violet Gonda and Lance Guma
14 December 2005

The controversial passport seizures by Zimbabwean authorities reached new heights on Wednesday. On one hand they returned passports to leading newspaper publisher Trevor Ncube and opposition politician Paul Themba Nyathi, and on the other they confiscated that of outspoken trade unionist Raymond Majongwe as he arrived at Harare International Airport from an AIDS conference in Abuja, Nigeria.

Trevor Ncube had filed an urgent High Court application challenging the seizure of his passport as unlawful. However his passport was returned before the courts considered the matter. Passports are being seized under constitutional amendment number 17, which allows the state to bar travel for perceived critics of the Mugabe regime.

Ncube told Newsreel the Attorney General’s Office had called his lawyers on Tuesday to collect his passport, thereby conceding that the seizure was unlawful. Nyathi on the other hand says he received a phone call from immigration authorities advising him that his passport would be returned to him.

Human Rights Lawyer Arnold Tsunga said the seizures are illegal, as amendment 17 is being implemented without an operational regulatory framework in place for this draconian legislation.

The legal expert said it is obvious that the seizures of the passports violate fundamental principles of natural justice, and this is why the Attorney General’s office returned Ncube’s passport. The seizure was not a defendable case in court.

Tsunga said the latest action concerning Majongwe shows that the system of government has lost control over organs of the state in the sense that “the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.” He implied that this is the work of overzealous state security agents who continue to implement this action on the basis of a list that was compiled by the Registrar General’s Office.

Raymond Majongwe is the Secretary General of the militant Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe. A former University of Zimbabwe student leader who has also produced poetry and protest music, Majongwe has been a thorn in the flesh for the government having led several demonstrations against them. Briggs Bomba from the International Socialist Organisation (ISO) told Newsreel they had tried to mobilize civic society leaders to go to the airport and protest the seizure of Majongwe’s passport. The effort proved a logistical nightmare, as they only knew of Majongwe’s arrival at the airport close to the time he got there.

Immigration officials did not bother to tell Majongwe why they were taking his passport. Majongwe, according to his colleagues, was also aware he was on a special targeted list and knew his passport would probably be confiscated upon arrival. He told AFP "This whole exercise is to intimidate and mellow down people who want to take the ZANU-PF government head-on…I am not intimidated by this. In fact I am inspired by the fact that the government regards me as an influential figure in the democratisation process.”

Trevor Ncube said: “People should not relax. It’s time for civil society to mobilise around this issue. We cannot have legislation that allows the government to use the passport as a way of punishing people that criticise it. It is very uncivilised to behave in this manner.”

Widespread condemnation at home and abroad fell on deaf ears as the repressive sanctions were welcomed at the ZANU PF national congress this past weekend. Speaking at the conference, Robert Mugabe vowed to take "stern action" against non-governmental organisations and critics of his government. Mugabe's party recommended on Saturday that the government act against hostile rights groups and asked security forces to draw up a list of people whose passports should be taken.