Zimbabwe

Doves Funeral Assurance hoped to persuade the high court in Harare that it had a valid agreement with Zimplats to provide an employee funeral scheme, and that after Zimplats cancelled, it should pay the funeral company more than US $4m in damages for lost profit. But Judge Amy Tsanga wasn’t convinced.

The high court in Zimbabwe has been grappling with the question of how to deal with witchcraft-related murder, and the role that such beliefs should play in a trial. It’s an on-going issue for courts in a number of African countries, and in this case, the presiding judge, Lucy Mungwari, looked at a variety of approaches by other courts. The case she was considering was particularly horrific, as the accused murdered his own father and his aunt, both of whom were well over 80 years old. 

A new, scholarly journal focused on democracy, governance and human rights in Zimbabwe, has just published its first edition online. Coordinator of the journal, Musa Kika, says the journal is partly a response to Zimbabwe’s lack of scholarly publications dealing with legal and other issues, and that this is a lack that the judiciary itself has commented on. The first edition, featuring five articles focused on elections, election practices and disputes, is particularly timely given that a general election is expected to be held in Zimbabwe by mid-year.