SADC Set To Discuss Zim Land Reform
17/05/2011 20:08:00
Harare, May 17, 2011 – Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform programme is set
to take centre stage in the upcoming Southern African Development Community
(SADC) special summit on Zimbabwe to be held on Friday, a SADC official has
told Radio VOP.
The summit to take place in Namibia will discuss Zimbabwe’s land reform
programme and a report prepared by the sub-region’s Justice Ministers and
Attorney Generals when they met in Swakopmund, Namibia last month.
“A report on the operations of the court and the issues around the land
reform in Zimbabwe that were handled by the court will be discussed,”
Charles Mkandawire, the SADC Tribunal Registrar told Radio VOP from
Windhoek.
Mkandawire added that, “the report will be tabled by the Namibian Minister
of Justice who is the chair of the committee which came up with the report.”
Zimbabwe’s Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told the state media on Monday
that the committee of Ministers and AGs had acknowledged that the regional
court was improperly constituted and its decisions were null and void.
The report is yet to be presented before SADC leaders who will have a final
say on the future of the regional court.
The Windhoek-based court which has issued various judgments in favour of
displaced white commercial farmers was put under review last year after
complaints from the Zimbabwean government that it was not properly
constituted and its operations were usurping powers of national
constitutions.
The tribunal has not been entertaining any cases from the region during the
time that the committee of Ministers and Attorney Generals has been
reviewing its operations. The Tribunal has been a thorn in the flesh of
President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu (PF) party after it ruled in November
2008 that the controversial land reform programme was discriminatory, racist
and illegal under the SADC Treaty.
The regional court ordered the Zimbabwe government not to seize land from
the 79 farmers who had appealed to the Namibia-based court and said Harare
must compensate those it had already evicted from their farms.