Zimbabwe's beleaguered Chief Justice, Mr Anthony Gubbay, scored a small victory over his foes in President Robert Mugabe's government when he turned up for work yesterday in defiance of a ministerial order to stay away.
The government has denounced Judge Gubbay as a white stooge of white interests trying to overthrow it, following a series of rulings against its controversial land reform programme. It had already named another judge to replace him.
But the 68-year-old judge ignored the order, and at 8.15 a.m. his silver-grey Mercedes Benz pulled into the Supreme Court car-park, where court officials slammed the gate on waiting journalists.
Inside his chambers Judge Gubbay met his lawyer and a personal adviser. Sources said he was enraged at parliamentary reports from the previous day in which ruling party MPs accused him of being part of an "international cartel" to oust Mr Mugabe's ZANU-PF party from power.
Earlier fears that the government would have the elderly man frog-marched from his chambers were not realised. Mr Joseph Chinotimba, a feared war veteran who led an invasion of a Supreme Court sitting earlier this year, came to the courthouse to ask if Judge Gubbay was in, then drove off.
The government has insisted that Judge Gubbay must leave office immediately, but sources said that behind-the-scenes negotiations took place during the day between the Justice Minister, Mr Patrick Chinamasa, and Judge Gubbay's representatives. No announcement had been made by early yesterday evening.
Speaking outside the Supreme Court, the Agriculture Minister, Mr Joseph Made, told reporters the Chief Justice position was "vacant". Judge Gubbay had been dismissed for making "biased" judgements in cases concerning Mr Mugabe's controversial land reform programme, he said. "The nation cannot honour a Chief Justice who vacillates," he added.
The government has named the High Court president, Judge Godfrey Chidyausiku, as acting Chief Justice, but it was unclear last night when, or if, he would be officially appointed.
Friends said that Judge Gubbay, who was appointed Chief Justice by Mr Mugabe in 1990 and is regarded as conservative, had been reluctantly thrust into the limelight.
"He is the last person to expect himself to be in this position," said Mr Charles Lazarus, a friend and lawyer.
The government has made no secret of its desire to replace the current Supreme Court bench with "independent" figures, a move a UN investigator recently criticised as "a direct assault on the rule of law".