Fascism Re-Visited

Yesterday the Zimbabwe High Court ruled against the SADC Tribunal judgement that ruled in favour of white farmers who were being subjected to the violent loss of their land and homes. Justice Bharat Patel, a good friend of mine from my squash playing days, said “enforcing the tribunal’s ruling would be against Zimbabwe’s domestic laws and agrarian policies”, noting that “the greater public good must prevail".

I am reminded of Hitler and his Nazi party’s attempts to exterminate the Jews. It was Nazi government policy to exterminate the Jews based on their misguided perception of “the greater public good”. Apartheid was also a government policy of a previous South African government. Hmmmmmm! The Zimbabwean judgement is not a good sign at all. Not for Zimbabwe and not for my friend Bharat when The End does come.

The trial of Roy Bennet continues. Peter Hitschmann, his alleged co conspirator and star state witness has made a total mockery of the state case. The state is now asking the court to admit ‘emails downloaded from Hitschmann’s computer’ to be admitted as evidence of direct communication between he and Bennet. To ‘prove’ that the e-mails were legitimately printed from Hitschmann’s laptop, a typist gave evidence that she printed them. But Hitschmann says he doesn’t own the laptop or the hard drive from which the emails were printed. Clearly the email ‘evidence’ is an attempted stitch up, not unlike the stitch up “evidence” presented at Morgan Tsvangirayi’s treason trial a few years ago. ZANU PF’s deviousness knows no bounds.

But the judge has suspended his ruling on the matter until next Wednesday, a whole week away. What more does poor Roy Bennet have to put up with? The continued delays in making various rulings are surely nothing more than attempts to delay the inevitable judgement that will have to be made eventually.