Posts by Charles Rukuni

Patrick Chinamasa has been one of the longest serving Justice Ministers in Zimbabwe. There is a reason for that. He is a shrewd political tactician, and a close confidante of President Robert Mugabe. Chinamasa who left his private practice first to become attorney-general and then Justice Minister was the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s chief negotiator in the talks that ultimately led to the formation of the inclusive government. Some observers say Chinamasa is one of Mugabe’s favourites because he always gets his way without breaking the law. There are more than 190 cables on him. Here is the first batch.

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Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said he saw no reason why everyone should doubt Zimbabwe’s reforms. He was speaking on his first day in office on his return from leave following the death of his wife, Susan.

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President Robert Mugabe got closer to having his ideal court when two independent judges Nicholas McNally and Simbarashe Muchechetere left the scene, one through death and the other by resigning, according to the United States embassy.

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Emmerson Mnangagwa told United States ambassador Joseph Sullivan that he hoped the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill would never be passed and voiced his disdain for Information Minister Jonathan Moyo.

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Movement for Democratic Change senator Obert Gutu was elected chairman of the powerful Parliamentary Legal Committee. Four other seats of the five-member committee were divided evenly between the MDC and the Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front.

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A dozen Zimbabwe journalists and broadcasters working for the Voice of America have been paid just over US$2 million by the United States government over the past eight years to broadcast news that the American taxpayer is not even allowed to hear.

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Botswana President Ian Khama, one of the strongest critics of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, called on the British government to resume aid to Zimbabwe barely a month after the formation of the inclusive government saying it would be a grave mistake not to do so, one of the diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks says.

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Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the government intended to amend the Electoral Act to give the Electoral Supervisory Commission the explicit responsibility for the recruitment, training and deployment of election monitors.

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High Court Judge Yunus Omerjee told United States embassy officials that President Robert Mugabe and his advisors had shaped the judiciary in their own image with Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa as the mastermind.

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Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told United States ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee that there was a one-in-one-thousand chance that the accident that killed his wife Susan less than a month after he assumed office was an intentional act.

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