News / National
Zimbabwe govt rubbishes Kamphepe Report
21 Nov 2014 at 06:00hrs | Views
Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo said yesterday dismissed a report released recently by two South African judges on Zimbabwe's 2002 presidential elections as a nullity that should be treated with the contempt it deserves,
The report by judges Dikgang Moseneke and Sisi Khampepe claimed the elections were not credible, free or fair.
The controversial report was released last week following a lengthy legal battle spanning over five years by South African-based Mail &Guardian newspaper.
"Bringing a report that is 12 years old in politics is not very useful because as they say a day in politics can be like 1 000 years," Prof Moyo said.
"One thing that is certain in politics is that events in politics do overtake a lot of opinions. That is one thing. The second thing is that truly it will be unreasonable for us to waste our time on a report that was written by two people on a nationwide election with over 8 000 polling stations in 10 provinces covering, at that time, 120 constituencies."
He added: "These may be capable people but they are not super human beings. There is no election observer team that has ever come here with two people and was able to come up with a credible report. No wonder most of the content is based on contentious secondary material which the authors swallowed hook, line and sinker without interrogating it because they had neither the time nor expertise to assess it."
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday threw his weight behind the report saying it "confirms what has been the major blemish of our elections in Zimbabwe, that the Presidential poll of 2002 was not free, fair and credible".
The MDC hired a South African senior Advocate Jeremy Gauntlet to argue the case for Tsvangirai assisted by Adv Adrian Philip de Bourbon.
During the hearing of the election petitions, verification and an audit of the election residue was conducted.
This involved bringing the ballot material to the High Court where the MDC through its technical consultants looked through each and every document that was used in the plebiscite. But the party later withdrew the case claiming that the Courts were partisan.
The 2002 elections were declared free, fair and credible by observers from sadc, the African Union and many other international organisations.
The report by judges Dikgang Moseneke and Sisi Khampepe claimed the elections were not credible, free or fair.
The controversial report was released last week following a lengthy legal battle spanning over five years by South African-based Mail &Guardian newspaper.
"Bringing a report that is 12 years old in politics is not very useful because as they say a day in politics can be like 1 000 years," Prof Moyo said.
"One thing that is certain in politics is that events in politics do overtake a lot of opinions. That is one thing. The second thing is that truly it will be unreasonable for us to waste our time on a report that was written by two people on a nationwide election with over 8 000 polling stations in 10 provinces covering, at that time, 120 constituencies."
He added: "These may be capable people but they are not super human beings. There is no election observer team that has ever come here with two people and was able to come up with a credible report. No wonder most of the content is based on contentious secondary material which the authors swallowed hook, line and sinker without interrogating it because they had neither the time nor expertise to assess it."
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday threw his weight behind the report saying it "confirms what has been the major blemish of our elections in Zimbabwe, that the Presidential poll of 2002 was not free, fair and credible".
The MDC hired a South African senior Advocate Jeremy Gauntlet to argue the case for Tsvangirai assisted by Adv Adrian Philip de Bourbon.
During the hearing of the election petitions, verification and an audit of the election residue was conducted.
This involved bringing the ballot material to the High Court where the MDC through its technical consultants looked through each and every document that was used in the plebiscite. But the party later withdrew the case claiming that the Courts were partisan.
The 2002 elections were declared free, fair and credible by observers from sadc, the African Union and many other international organisations.
Source - The Herald
