Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) SADC ruling on Zim farms unenforceable: High Court

SADC ruling on Zim farms unenforceable: High Court
by
27/01/2010 00:00:00

ZIMBABWE'S High Court has rejected a Southern African Development Community [SADC] tribunal's ruling that blocked the government's move to resettle blacks on more than 70 white-owned farms.

"The registration and consequent enforcement of that judgment would be fundamentally contrary to the public policy of this country," Justice Bharat Patel said in a judgement reported by the Herald newspaper on Wednesday.

The Namibia-based tribunal of the Southern African Development Community ruled in 2008 that the white farmers could keep their land because the scheme amounted to racial discrimination.

Zimbabwe's government rejected the ruling, so the farmers turned to a Harare court to try to enforce the judgement.

"In effect, the enforcement of the decision... would ultimately necessitate the government having to reverse all the land acquisitions that have taken place since 2,000," Patel said in the judgement.

Zimbabwe embarked on controversial land reforms in 2000 seizing white-owned farms in what President Robert Mugabe said was a way to correct colonial-era inequities.

But critics blame the often violent land reforms for a dramatic drop in food production in the former regional breadbasket. - Sapa-AFP

Labels: HIGH COURT (ZIMBABWE), LAND REFORM, SADC, WHITE FARMERS

posted by MrK @ 4:22 AM