communication should be declared inadmissible. Law Admissibility Competence of the African Commission 38. In the present communication, the Respondent State raises a preliminary question regarding the competence of the African Commission to deal with this communication. The State avers that: "basically the facts and issues in dispute do not fall within the rationae materiae and rationae personae of the jurisdiction of the Commission". This statement questions the competence of the African Commission to deal with this communication. The Commission will thus first deal with the preliminary issue of its competence raised by the Respondent State. 39. Black's Law Dictionary defines rationae materiae as "by reason of the matter involved; in consequence of, or from the nature of, the subject-matter." While rationae personae is defined as "By reason of the person concerned; from the character of the person". 40. Given the nature of the allegations contained in the communication, notably, allegations of violation of personal integrity or security, intimidation and torture, the Commission is of the view that the communication raises material elements which may constitute human rights violations, and as such it has competence rationae materiae to entertain the matter, because the communication alleges violations to human rights guaranteed and protected in the Charter. With regards to the Commission's competence rationae personae, the communication indicates the name of the author, an individual, whose rights under the African Charter, the Respondent State is committed to respecting and protecting. With regards to the State, the Commission notes that Zimbabwe, the Respondent State in this case, has been a State Party to the African Charter since 1986. Therefore, both the Complainant and the Respondent State have locus standi before the Commission, and the Commission thus has competence rationae personae to examine the communication before it. 41. Having decided that it has competence rationae materiae and rationae personae, the Commission will now proceed to pronounce on the admissibility requirements and the contentious areas between the parties. The African Commission's decision on admissibility 42. The admissibility of communications before the African Commission is governed by the requirements of Article 56 of the African Charter. This Article provides seven requirements which must all be met before the African Commission can declare a communication admissible. If one of these conditions/requirements is not met, the African Commission will declare the communication inadmissible, unless the Complainant provides justifications why any of the requirements could not be met. 43. In the present communication, the Complainant avers that his complaint meets the requirements under Articles 56(1), 56(2), 56(3), 56(4), 56(6) and 56(7). He indicates that he did not attempt to comply with the requirement under Article 56 dealing with the exhaustion lf local remedies, because of the nature of his case and the circumstances under which he left the Respondent State, and since he is presently living in South Africa, the exception rule should be invoked. He states that his inability to exhaust local remedies was due to the fact that he had to flee to South Africa for fear for his life. 44. The State on the other hand argues that the Complainant has not complied with the provisions of Article 56 sub-sections 2, (5) and (6) of the Charter, and urges the Commission to declare the communication inadmissible based on the non-fulfillment of these requirements. 45. The admissibility requirements under Article 56 of the Charter are meant to ensure that a communication is properly brought before the Commission, and seeks to sieve frivolous and vexatious communications before they reach the merits stage. As indicated earlier, for a communication to be declared admissible, it must meet all the requirements under Article 56. Therefore, if a party contends that another party has not complied with any of the requirements, the Commission must pronounce itself on the contentious issues between the parties. This however does not mean that other requirements of Article 56 which are not contested by the parties will not be examined by the Commission. 5