Crouching tiger, fleeing judge
“A rocket-propelled grenade once exploded near me”, a journalist friend from Pakistan once “bragged” to me one afternoon.
“Well, a mob of journalists and activists once exploded near me,” I shot back.
The city was Berlin and my friend and I were sharing the hairier moments of our 
careers. The incident I was talking about happened in March 2008, a day after Zimbabwe’s presidential and parliamentary elections. George Chiweshe – war veteran, judge and retired army major – was the face of the government on this day. And what a face it was. You see, it was from this man’s mouth that the name of the country’s next president was supposed to come.
careers. The incident I was talking about happened in March 2008, a day after Zimbabwe’s presidential and parliamentary elections. George Chiweshe – war veteran, judge and retired army major – was the face of the government on this day. And what a face it was. You see, it was from this man’s mouth that the name of the country’s next president was supposed to come.Emotions were running high – with the population mainly divided between supporters of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and those of incumbent Robert Mugabe. A group of about 20 journalists and political activists gathered around Chiweshe in the lobby of one of Harare’s best hotels, anxious to hear when the results would be out.
Chiweshe is soft spoken. He speaks fluent English and was dressed in smart casual. You could have mistaken him for your favourite uncle. But from his mouth came words that could have come from the devil’s mouth for all we cared.
“There are no results,” he said.
There it was. The biggest problem with the government of Zimbabwe. A government that proclaims to be accountable to its people in one breath and yet denies them their right to know in the next. The reaction to this arrogance on this day, however, surprised me. Journalists, rights activists and others present exploded in spontaneous protest against the judge. The boos, the jeering, the heckling – it all happened so fast and one could feel the anger in the air, as if one had walked in on two love enemies fighting.
The learned judge must have felt it too because he did something I have never seen a judge do in my entire life. He ran across the lobby to the safety of a burly porter who was standing on the other side. Usain Bolt himself could not have done a faster time. Of course the crowd was never going to beat him. Too many journalists have gone to jail in Zimbabwe ,for nobler reasons, for those who remain free to do that. Zimbabwe’s government officials simply refuse to be accountable to anyone but themselves. And when the heat is turned on them by journalists the recipe is just like the judge’s: call in the police, the youth militia or whatever military muscle is close at hand. However, as last year’s experience showed, an army does not march on an empty stomach.
In September, seven months after the fleeing of the judge, after Robert Mugabe was announced as winner of a presidential run-off, the government of Zimbabwe was forced into a government of national unity. The reason; the economy was a mess, the government was broke and the voters were not happy.
The judge may have kept the results to himself on that day, but no one can keep reality to himself.The struggle for independent media in Zimbabwe continues, may the strength of telling the truth encourage those who fight for it.
Richard ChimbiriJournalist
Zimbabwe