17
Introduction
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights ruled against the
Zambian government in both Kaunda’s and Banda and Chinula’s
cases – but again not in time to enable them to contest for political office when they wished.
The Tanzanian government, despite its mostly positive record,
has also attempted to use citizenship law to denationalize several
journalists and other critics. In 2001, the government declared
four individuals – including Jenerali Ulimwengu, a leading pub
lisher, journalist and media proprietor; and the country’s then
high commissioner to Nigeria, Timothy Bandora – to be noncitizens. In 2006, the government again stripped two journalists of their nationality, accusing them of being ‘unpatriotic and
enemies of the state’.
These cases continue. In Zimbabwe, as in Côte d’Ivoire, a general
programme of denationalization has had the benefit of providing
scope for the government also to silence troublesome individuals
(or simply to humiliate past enemies). In December 2005, the
Zimbabwean government informed Trevor Ncube, owner of two
independent newspapers that were highly critical of President
Mugabe’s policies, that he had forfeited his Zimbabwean citizenship because he had failed to renounce his Zambian citizenship
– which he had never claimed but was allegedly entitled to because
his father was born in Zambia. Ncube’s passport was restored to
him following a court order. Others who had their passports taken
away for good included the last Rhodesian prime minister, Ian
Smith, and his predecessor Sir Garfield Todd, deposed as head
of government when he tried to liberalize Rhodesia’s apartheidstyle rule – and then also deprived of his passport by Ian Smith’s
government. Judith Todd, daughter of Garfield Todd and herself
a high-profile opponent of the former white minority regime and
an activist under the new government, was also deprived of her
passport on the basis that she had a notional entitlement to New
Zealand citizenship.