The Judge President of Zimbabwe, Justice Wilson Sandura, invalidated an order prohibiting a gay rights organization from having a display at an international book fair.
Facts
On the day before the opening of the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in Harare, in late July 1996, the Chairman of the Board of Censors issued a prohibition order on the executive director of the book fair and the Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ) in terms of Section 17(1) of the Censorship and Entertainments Control Act. It prohibited GALZ from "establishing a stand or exhibiting"at the fair.
The relevant parts of Section 17(1) of the Act give the Censorship Board the power to prohibit "the public exhibition or intended exhibition of any publication" if the Board has reason to believe that it "is likely to be associated with breaches of the peace, disorderly or immoral behaviour or abuses relating to the consumption of alcohol or drugs".
On 30 July, GALZ made an urgent application to the High Court to set aside the prohibition order. Judgment was granted the following day.
The background to this case was the exclusion of GALZ from the 1995 book fair (organized around the theme of human rights) after a speech by President Robert Mugabe in which he described homosexuals as "perverts" and objected to the presence of the GALZ exhibit.
Decision
Counsel for GALZ argued that the state had no right to proceed in terms of Section 17, particularly as no effort had been made to find out what GALZ intended to display. They also argued that the wording of the order was deficient since, for example, the order referred to "a stand or exhibiting" without considering the clear distinction between these concepts. Sandura JP found in favour of the applicants, declaring the Notice of Prohibition to be null and void and interdicting the respondents from unlawfully interfering with the GALZ stand.
The state announced that evening through the media that it was appealing. Notice of Appeal was served on GALZ's lawyers on the morning of 1 August. They lodged a second urgent application with the Judge President that, notwithstanding the appeal, GALZ could continue with its display. Hearing the matter that afternoon, Sandura JP expressed surprise that the state had attempted to prevent GALZ from displaying by lodging an appeal. He made a second order stating that his original order remained operative in its entirety pending the outcome of the appeal.
Later, after the book fair was over, the appeal was withdrawn.
Richard Carver, ARTICLE 19.