Michael Trapido

Professor Pierre de Vos, who teaches constitutional law at the University of the Western Cape, gave his thoughts in his not-to-be-missed blog Constitutionally Speaking on submissions by Judge President John Hlophe’s lawyers. They suggested the treatment meted out to their client, as opposed to that of the judges of the Constitutional Court, was inconsistent. In […]

Anyone who has been monitoring the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) response, or more importantly lack thereof, to the Zimbabwean crisis over an extended period would probably be staggered by any proposal to form a union government for the continent. Yet newly appointed chairperson Moammar Gadaffi and African leaders, currently […]

One of the greatest deceptions of World War II was the concentration camp established at Terezin (renamed Thereisenstadt by the Germans) near Prague in then Czechoslovakia. Though the Nazis gave it a pleasant looking facade, in order to fool the Red Cross, diplomats and world media, it was nothing more or less than a collection […]

The decision by the MDC to join the Zimbabwean government of national unity is both vexing and understandable in light of the conduct of the South African government and the elitist club known as SADC. Tsvangirai and his elected party were sold down the river and given little choice but to accept a deal which […]

Anyone who saw Zimbabwe’s acting Minister of Finance Patrick “whose fooling who” Chinamasa deliver his budget, to roars of derision and laughter from the MDC members of Parliament on SABC 3 News last night, would immediately have begun phoning around to see if this genius does children’s parties. None of your one-liners or knock knock […]

“Freedom of expression as safeguarded in various constitutional and international law instruments has been developed and expanded by the case-law and the doctrine of western countries and by the struggles of journalists in a dynamic and progressive manner in line with the liberal trends and ideas of democracy that have emerged during the years following […]

Why is it that, despite overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing and ever increasing calls for an end to the Mugabe regime, the SADC and its worst offender, South Africa, refuse to accept that this will be the inevitable short-term outcome? All that we are really waiting to see is how short the period will be and […]