(TALKZIMBABWE) Embarassed Tsvangirai retracts rant against judges

Embarassed Tsvangirai retracts rant against judges
By: Our reporter
Posted: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 2:59 am

EMBARASSED MDC-T leader and Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Tuesday was forced to retract misguided statements he made against the Zimbabwean judiciary after it emerged that the Attorney General was considering charging him for labeling Zimbabwe’s judges partial Zanu-PF functionaries.

Tsvangirai -- who had initially refused to withdraw his comments and threatened to withdraw from the inclusive Government said his misguided statements were "spontaneous statements made in anger" after a Supreme Court ruling nullified the election of his MDC-T party’s chairman, Lovemore Moyo, as Speaker of the House of Assembly.

"The comments were not meant to undermine the judiciary and should not be taken out of context," read part of his statement, although he did not indicate what new "context" he was referring to.

“My recent comments on the judiciary were clearly an immediate reaction against a judgment that affected the morale of my party. Those comments should not be taken out of context.

“They are not in any way a departure from my strong belief in judicial independence nor were they meant to undermine anyone.

"As a party, we remain committed to judicial independence. We have never sought to undermine anyone in the judiciary and we will continue to place our matters before the courts."

Despite his utterances, Tsvangirai's MDC-T party last week approached the same courts to rule on a ban that had been imposed by the police over their rally.

"That is why, as recently as last Saturday, our lawyers were before Justice Chiweshe, arguing for the lifting of the ban on our 'peace' rally.”

“We have filed endless applications with different results with the various courts in Zimbabwe. The reason why we did this was our strong belief in the Judiciary and we still believe that disputes can be resolved in the courts of this country.”

When the Supreme Court nullified Moyo's election, Tsvangirai had said he would not accept a ruling that had been made by “Zanu PF politicians masquerading as judges.”

Senior Zanu-PF officials had immediately publicly called for Tsvangirai’s arrest for contempt of court, while reports from the capital had also indicated that the AG was preparing to charge him for contempt of court.

The AG could still charge Tsvangirai despite his embarassing climbdown.