When the first congress of the MDC was held in January 2000 very few people would have predicted that the ZANU PF regime would be prepared to go to such extreme lengths to hold onto power. Very few people anticipated that so many MDC activists would suffer at the hands of the ZANU PF regime as they have in the last six years. Over 300 MDC supporters had been murdered in cold blood. Hundreds of MDC supporters had been tortured. Thousands of MDC supporters have been arrested, detained and prosecuted for spurious “offences”. Virtually every single MDC leader of any consequence has also been arrested and prosecuted. These cases ranged from the high profile treason or murder cases involving the likes of Morgan Tsvangirai, Welshman Ncube and Fletcher Dulini Ncube to literally thousands of other cases involving rank-and-file members who were charged with breaching fascist laws such as POSA.
During the same period the ZANU PF regime did all it could to subvert the electoral process and to frustrate the will of the Zimbabwean electorate. Accordingly it was necessary to challenge these unlawful actions through the courts to expose the fraudulent conduct of the regime. In this regard some 39 electoral challenges were brought following the June 2000 general elections, a major electoral challenge was brought challenging Robert Mugabe’s election in March 2002 and some 15 electoral challenges were brought following the March 2005 general elections. They were numerous supplementary applications brought around these cases, such as the application brought to the Supreme Court to obtain a copy of the electronic/computer version of the voters roll.
It has always been very important to remind Zimbabweans that the current fascist order Zimbabweans are subjected to is not the norm and that the MDC has a vision for a new Zimbabwe which embraces the rule of law, democracy, transparency and freedom. Integral to that vision has been the development of a justice policy which was the responsibility of the legal affairs Department. A concomitant role was to use Parliament as a forum to explain the MDC justice policy and the MDC’s vision for a new constitution and a new democratic order in Zimbabwe. The legal affairs Department provided the MDC caucus with input in this regard.
A justice is not only achieved in the courts; it is achieved as well through the rehabilitation of the victims of human rights abuses. In this regard the legal affairs Department has worked very closely with churches, other civic organisations and the MDC welfare officers to identify MDC members who have suffered materially and psychologically at the hands of the regime. In the course of the last two years several hundred victims have been identified and a programme is under way to help these MDC members pick up the pieces of their lives through, for example, the reconstruction of their homes. This is a massive programme which will require the raising of billions of dollars if the plight of all of these victims is to be addressed.
MDC Legal Affairs Department Report 2000 to 2005