Ncube’s citizenship remains under threat as court case continues

By Violet Gonda
24 January 2007

The High Court has postponed the hearing of newspaper publisher Trevor Ncube’s citizenship case. This is after the Attorney General’s office requested an adjournment to Thursday, to study new evidence brought in by the defence team.

Ncube is asking the court to reverse his de-nationalisation and to order the government to issue him with a passport within three days of issue of the High Court order. The AG had filed a submission on Tuesday alleging that Ncube is a Zambian citizen under Zambian law.

But Sternford Moyo, the lawyer representing Ncube said: “In order to counter that submission we invited a Zambian advocate to prepare an opinion…regarding Zambian nationality laws”

He added: “The fact of that opinion is that Zambia does not recognise dual citizenship.”
The state is refusing to renew Ncube’s passport claiming he is not a Zimbabwean citizen but a Zambian by descent. Observers say this is mere harassment, as Ncube is the publisher of the last remaining independent newspapers - The Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard.
Sternford Moyo said the Zambian lawyer’s ‘opinion’ is very significant in proving that Ncube was not a Zambian citizenship during the period that the authorities had specified. He said: “Because the dispute has now been narrowed to the argument that at the critical time, that is the time of the prohibition against dual citizenship in Zimbabwe, Ncube was holding Zambian citizenship.
Moyo explain that under Zimbabwean laws, if a person did not renounce foreign citizenship within a specified period running from July 2002 to January 2003, they’d lose any entitlement to Zimbabwean citizenship.
Ncube, who is based in South Africa, is not in Zimbabwe for the court hearing for fear of having his passport confiscated. His lawyer said: “We do have a court order issued by the High Court in December 2005 prohibiting the government from interfering with his possession of the very passport but in light of recent developments concerning his citizenship we cannot say whether or not that judgement will continue to be respected.”
When asked what Ncube stands to lose if the court rules against him, Moyo responded by saying since he is not entitled to Zambian citizenship he would become stateless if de-nationalised in Zimbabwe. He said: “A person without any state to protect him is a person in a highly vulnerable position.”