On Friday Zimbabwe marked its 28th independence anniversary. President Robert Mugabe seized the occasion to denounce the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and former colonial power Britain, and also to accuse the opposition of treason. The country’s high court on the same day turned down the opposition’s appeal to have a recount of the March 29th election stopped.
On Thursday the leader of the opposition, Morgan Tsvangirai, asked the South African Development Community (SADC) to relieve President Thabo Mbeki of his duties as mediator and replace him with a special envoy for talks between SADC and President Mugabe.
Nelson Chamisa is spokesman for the MDC. Nightline’s Akwei Thompson first asked him for his reaction to the high court’s decision to allow the recount of the vote. A spokesman for the ZANU-PF declined to be interviewed.
Chamisa said the decision was quite disappointing considering the fact that their case "was very compelling, legally." He said the decision did not come as a surprise and that the MDC had actually “anticipated this kind of behaviour”. “What we get from this court and this judgment is that the courts are working according to the whims and caprices of this dictatorship of Mugabe regime and as such it’s very difficult for us to get any kind of recourse or relief from Mugabe’s institutions…,” he added.