Among the fractious paralysis of Zimbabwe's unity government - with increased arrests of Movement for Democratic Change supporters, continued selective prosecutions, and attempts by Zanu-PF to strip Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the few powers he has - there has been a glimmer of good news.

The chairmen of the key human rights and electoral commissions have been announced, and both appointees have good local and international records. Professor Reg Austin will head the first Human Rights Commission. He was the late Joshua Nkomo's legal adviser during the Lancaster House talks in London in 1979, which led to independence six months later.

Austin was also the first post-independence dean of law at the University of Zimbabwe and is one of the most experienced electoral officials within UN circles, having worked in many of the world's most difficult polls. The Electoral Commission chairman is Judge Simpson Mtambenengwe, who went to the Namibian Bench in 1994, became acting chief justice and was chairman of the electoral commission in Windhoek.

 

The treason trial of MDC party treasurer general and deputy agriculture minister-designate Roy Bennett failed to resume on Monday due to the ongoing strike by civil servants. Both state and defence lawyers turned up at the High Court but were turned away by presiding Judge Chinembiri Bhunu because he had no support staff. The lawyers had a brief meeting with Bhunu in his chambers where they were told that the trial would not go ahead as scheduled. State lawyer Chris Mutangadura said the trial had been postponed indefinitely because of the strike by civil servants. “The matter has been postponed indefinitely until the strike is over. All matters at the High Court have to be recorded and the clerk of court is not available. We don’t have a date when the trial can resume because of the strike,” said Mutangadura.

 

Zimbabwean Public Service Minister Eliphas Mukonoweshuro said on Monday that his government had no money to pay tens of thousands of striking civil servants the salary increases they were demanding. On Friday, the Zimbabwe Public Service Association (ZPSA), which represents about 200 000 civil servants, announced an indefinite strike to press their demands for a hike in pay. "It is not unwillingness on the part of the government. It is simply the lack of fiscal capacity on our part," Mukonoweshuro said, expressing sympathy with the workers, most of whom are teachers. "Everyone in government knows that what our workers are getting does not meet their daily basic expenses," he admitted.

 

The South African government has been hauled over the coals by a Pretoria High Court judge for not protecting its citizens from Robert Mugabe's land expropriations. The government was ordered to pay damages to a South African farmer to whom it failed to provide diplomatic protection after Mugabe's government seized 11 of his farms in Zimbabwe without compensation. Although the damages have yet to be calculated, it could amount to R100 million. Free State farmer Crawford von Abo, who began farming in Zimbabwe 50 years ago, was arrested for "trespassing" on his main farm in 1997 and even spent time in a Zimbabwean jail as Zanu-PF cracked down on white farmers and expropriated their land.