President Robert Mugabe has won a significant victory in his battle against Zimbabwe's independent judiciary following a decision by the Chief Justice to leave office less than four months from now.
"The Chief Justice has agreed to take early retirement," Justice Anthony Gubbay announced yesterday in a statement co-signed by the Justice Minister, Mr Patrick Chinamasa.
The move averted a constitutional crisis but the Chief Justice's effective capitulation - following two days of defiance of a government order to leave office by March 1st - marks another blow for Zimbabwe's rapidly ailing democracy.
Earlier this week Justice Gubbay vowed to remain Chief Justice until his official retirement in April, 2002. But under yesterday's agreement, he will take leave immediately and retire on June 30th.
The government undertook to withdraw without reservation all earlier statements "impugning his honour and good name". An MP from the ruling Zanu-PF party said earlier that Justice Gubbay "thinks and behaves as if he is the last British Governor of Zimbabwe".
The government has already appointed the High Court president, Judge Godfrey Chid yausiku, as Justice Gubbay's replacement.
Judge Chidyausiku is perceived as being strongly pro-government and last year publicly attacked Justice Gubbay for allegedly favouring white farmers in his judgments.
Justice Gubbay (68) had been described by friends as a "reluctant hero" and has been under enormous pressure over the last week. His wife is seriously ill. The government has also attempted to force two other judges, one white, one Asian, on the five-strong Supreme Court bench to resign in recent weeks, but they have refused.
In one judgment that angered the Mugabe government, Judge Gubbay wrote last November: "The courts are looked upon as the ultimate refuge from injustice."
Patrick Laurence reports from Johannesburg:
South Africa's two most senior judges, have expressed deep concern on behalf of the judiciary in South Africa about the threat to the judicial independence in neighbouring Zimbabwe.
"We are deeply concerned about the disrespect for the rule of law in Zimbabwe and for the position of our Zimbabwean judicial colleagues and, indeed, for all the people of Zimbabwe whom the rule of law is designed to protect," Constitutional Court President, Mr Arthur Chaskalson, and Acting Chief Justice Joos Hefer said.
The joint statement and the interview with Judge Hefer came in the wake of a public admission by President Thabo Mbeki that he is "seriously concerned" over developments in Zimbabwe.
In a debate in Parliament three days ago, Mr Tony Leon, leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance, declared the policy of "gentle persuasion" had failed and that the time to selective sanctions designed to hurt Mr Mugabe and his ruling party had come.