President Mugabe has somehow held onto the top job in Zimbabwe for almost thirty years and in that times, we have seen, time and time again, his habit of standing on the wrong side of the law, and his tacit support of those who wantonly break the law.

Mugabe believes that his position is above all else in the country, and that, based upon this belief, he is untouchable.

There are a few examples that I can highlight that show just how twisted and warped his rule is. They will show just how much disdain Mugabe has, not only for the law of Zimbabwe, but his disregard of international law.

Please bear in mind that these examples are all somewhat new – there are many, many more which could be highlighted that date back many years.

Mugabe’s Lies & Disregard Of the Rule Of law

1) Gideon Gono, unilaterally appointed Governor of the Reserve Bank, illegally took money from some foreign currency accounts held in the bank without the account holders’ authority. Mugabe defends Gono saying that he is ‘no thief’ and that the money was needed in the ‘national interest’. The money has since not been repaid.

2) Mines Minister Obert Mpofu has publicly defied a Supreme Court order that 29 kilograms of disputed diamonds be held at the Reserve Bank and enforced their removal. Mugabe has defended Mpofu’s actions, throwing the authority of the highest court in the land into a distinctly grey area.

3) Mugabe has used the actions of the war veterans to spearhead the land grab that continues in Zimbabwe today, ten years after it began. Farmers and their workers have been murdered in ZANU PF’s zeal to seize the land. Whilst Mugabe has rubber-stamped the veterans’ actions, we have yet to see any ZANU PF member, supporter, official, veteran or militia member appear in court to answer for the killings.

4) Having seized the vast majority of commercial farms, Mugabe’s senior loyalists and apologists are now seeking court orders to have the war veterans evicted from the land. Mugabe often has his dirty work carried out by the veterans and militia and then has them removed – forcibly if need be – allowing his closer confidantes to retain what they never fought for.

5) The Zimbabwe Republic Police is governed by the Police Act within the Constitution of Zimbabwe. That Act states that police officers are to be apolitical and should accede to the power of government in power. Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri has politicised the police force over the past ten years and it is now seen as a pro-Mugabe/ZANU PF institution. Mugabe also allows Chihuri to preclude the appointment of white officers into the force, claiming that they are MDC spies.

6) Mugabe has indicated his determination to ‘nail’ hated former white commercial farmer, Roy Bennett, and the State is presently trying him on terrorism charges. Mugabe refuses to swear Bennett into office as the Deputy Minister for Agriculture, saying that the charges he faces are ‘serious’ – whilst he appoints unprosecuted murder suspects to various commissions.

7) Mugabe pedals the lie that Zimbabwe is the subject of full illegal economic sanction by the West. He claims that these measures hurt the Zimbabwean people and their need to rise above poverty. Just yesterday, Mugabe had the youth militia march in Harare against the sanctions, which they described as ‘targeted travel measures’. He couldn’t even get his people to be briefed properly.

Just yesterday it was alleged that by Amos Midzi, one of Mugabe’s chosen few, that the sanctions in place against Zimbabwe had caused the collapse of the education and health ministries. He fails to substantiate that allegation, and expects his words to be believed without question – rather like his esteemed and sadly misguided leader.

I could probably go on and on, but I think that the point has been made. Mugabe does nothing more than take the truth out of any given situation, manufacture his own facts, repackage it so that it can be swallowed by his followers, and he then repeats it ad infinitum – in the hope that if you fling enough of it, some has to stick.

Robb WJ Ellis