Tribunal insists order stands | Opinion & Analysis

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Tribunal insists order stands

Written by Radio VOP/ SAPA

Monday, 08 February 2010 16:10

WINDHOEK -- The regional SADC Tribunal court has said that its 2007 landmark ruling in favour of white farmers in Zimbabwe remains binding despite claims by Harare that it is not bound by the judgment because it no longer recognises the Namibia-based regional court.
“As far as we are concerned Zimbabwe is still part of SADC and according to Article 16 of the SADC Treaty, the decision of the Tribunal is final and binding,“ Charles Mkandawire, the Tribunal registrar told Radio VOP by phone from Windhoek, Namibia. "The Zimbabwe matter is now in the hands of SADC heads (state and government) who will advise us on the way forward."?? Mkandawire categorically dismissed claims made by the Zimbabwean government last August saying it had pulled out of the Tribunal.??
The Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa wrote to the Tribunal last year advising of Zimbabwe’s decision to pullout of the regional court -- a decision which was later described by Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as a “personal“ opinion.? “According to us the Zimbabwean government is still part of the Tribunal. We have no document saying they have pulled out. They have just said they will not appear before the Tribunal. Zimbabwe is still part and parcel of the SADC and they is no way it cannot be part of the Tribunal unless f it pulls out of SADC,“ said Mkandawire.?? Last year Harare announced that it was pulling out of the Tribunal which it claimed had no legal authority because the protocol establishing the court was yet to be ratified by the required number of member-states.
President Robert Mugabe has also publicly dismissed the ruling by the Tribunal, while his followers in the military and in his Zanu (PF) party defied the court order by continuing to seize more land from the few white farmers remaining in Zimbabwe. Mugabe’s chaotic and often violent programme to seize white-owned farm land for redistribution to landless blacks saw several farms owned by foreigners and protected under bilateral trade agreements between Zimbabwe and other countries seized without compensation.?? The seizure of private land has raised questions about Zimbabwe’s commitment to uphold property rights as well as agreements entered with other countries.?
Meanwhile the High Court in Johannesburg last week ordered the government to compensate a Free State farmer for property seized from him in Zimbabwe.?? The South African government may be forced to pay up to R500m to Crawford von Abo after several of his farms were seized by Zimbabwe's government as part of that country's land reform programme.??Von Abo's lawyer, Ernst Penzhorn was quoted as saying the ruling proved the South African judicial system was working.

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