Zuma loses case to gag 2002 Zimbabwe election report

South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal today dismissed, with costs, the latest attempt by the presidency to appeal a high court order that it should hand the Khampepe Report to the Mail & Guardian. This means that the report on the 2002 presidential elections in Zimbabwe, which the Movement for Democratic Change and other observers claimed were rigged, can become public according to the Mail and Guardian. President Robert Mugabe won the elections with a 56.2 percent vote. Judge Fritz Brand said this might not be the end of the case. “Since this might still not be the end of the matter, I shall refrain from disclosing the contents of the report,” he said. The Mail and Guardian first applied for access to the report compiled by Judges Sisi Khampepe and Dikgang Moseneke in 2008. The two judges were sent by the South African government to report on the 2002 elections, but their report was considered secret. This effectively means that three South African presidents- Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Motlanthe and Jacob Zuma have so far refused to release the report.

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