give ill health as his reason for going. Rude good health would perhaps be a more accurate description.

In the past, Judge Godfrey has wisely tended to restrict his romantic dalliances to junior court staff and others. His latest inamorata was a little more high-profile - none other than Monica Chinamasa, loving wife of our Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa.

Patrick and Godfrey were old friends. Not any more. Patrick is taking Godfrey to court (adultery with a married person is an

offence here), and the resulting disgrace has been enough. The judge has been pronounced guilty, and must go.

His paramour, Monica, is an interesting figure too. In 2003 she took over at gun-point a previously white-owned tobacco farm, moved in, and immediately invited her new white neighbours round to tea, much to their astonishment. A year later she was declared Zimbabwe's Tobacco Grower of the Year.

Meanwhile Judge Godfrey, Zimbabwe's Adulterer of the Year, is fighting off adultery suits on all sides.

One is said to concern a senior female legislator, and three others are his subordinates at court. Although I have access to court files, the papers on these cases have mysteriously disappeared, and as a result