FILE. The Khampepe report’s revealed that the 2002 Zimbabwe elections were not free & fair. Picture: AFP.
JOHANNESBURG – The South African National Editors Forum says, if government was transparent and revealed the outcome of the Khampepe report on Zimbabwe’s 2002 election, the political landscape would have been far different.
A report by then High Court Judges Dikgang Moseneke and Sisi Khampepe has been released, after the Mail & Guardian won its case in the Constitutional court after five years.
The report, which was kept secret, revealed that the 2002 Zimbabwe elections were not free and fair and that more than 100 people, mostly opposition politicians, were killed.
Former President Thabo Mbeki gave the instructions to the judges to observe the elections but refused to share the outcome with the public.
Sanef chair Mpumelelo Mkhabela says, “I don’t know what would have happened had Zimbabwe and other bodies, who were involved in monitoring the elections, been aware of the content of this report. We celebrate the fact that the principle of transparence has been established… but then at the same time, the public has already been deprived of the right to know and participate in meaningful discourse.”
(Edited by Tamsin Wort) -Eyewitness
