Gweru court defends illegal invasion of SA farmer’s land
By Alex Bell
14 June 2011
A Gweru court has defended the illegal and often violent invasion of a
Somabhula farm, after the farmer was on Tuesday found guilty of refusing to
give up his land.
87 year old Phillip Hapelt, a South African citizen, was forced to flee his
farm earlier this year and was then charged for refusing to voluntarily give
up his land. This is despite numerous other court orders that have defended
his rights to his farm.
Phillip and his wife Ellen have for the past two years faced serious threats
from local ZANU PF MP Jabulani Mangena, who has led a campaign of
harassment, vandalism and violence against the farmers. The couple was
brutally beaten in late 2009 when Mangena first started trying to get them
to leave. Mangena meanwhile is said to have acquired at least three other
farms in the countrywide land grab campaign.
Many years ago the Hapelts voluntarily gave up the majority of their land
for the sake of ‘reform’, under an agreement that allowed them to remain on
their homestead with a small portion of farming land. They have two court
orders that entitle them to live on this farm, without fear of invasion or
persecution, but they were forced to seek two successive evictions orders in
an effort to get Mangena’s men off their land last year. Mangena has openly
disregarded the rulings of the courts and has previously threatened the
Hapelts with violence. In March the couple fled the property after a
standoff with a mob of land invaders threatened to turn violent.
Their fight has now come to an end after a Gweru court on Tuesday found
Phillip guilty of not voluntarily leaving his property. He was fined US$100.
Meanwhile there has been no reaction from the South African authorities on
this illegal treatment of one of their citizens, despite Zim and South
Africa both signing an investment protection agreement.
South Africa’s silence also comes as the Southern African leadership bloc
has dissolved the region’s human rights Tribunal, which ruled in 2008 that
the Zim land grab exercise was unlawful. Instead of protecting human rights,
Southern African leaders have chosen to silence this court, in a move
described as a “regressive” and a serious threat to the region’s future.