Zim files ‘urgent’ appeal against landmark SA farm ruling
By Alex Bell
18 October 2012
Zimbabwe’s government has filed an urgent appeal, against a landmark legal
decision in South Africa that upholds the regional ruling declaring Robert
Mugabe’s land grab unlawful.
Attorney General Johannes Tomana told the state ZBC that the government had
filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court of South Africa, to stop the
sale of Zimbabwean properties there.
“We have filed papers to challenge the ruling at the North Gauteng court
that gives powers to attach and sell property in Cape Town,” said Tomana.
He said the ruling to confiscate properties was based on a ruling of the
still suspended Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal and
therefore the South African court ruling had no legal basis.
The case at the High Court stemmed from the SADC Tribunal’s 2008 ruling that
the land grab in Zimbabwe was unlawful, which the Zim government has
ignored. The court was then suspended in 2010 by SADC leaders who refused to
take action against Zimbabwe for its contempt of the court.
This forced Zimbabwean commercial farmers and South African citizens Louis
Fick, Mike Campbell and Richard Etheredge to seek legal recourse in South
Africa, because Zimbabwe had refused to compensate them for the loss of
their land. The South African High Court in 2010 ruled in favour of the
farmers, enforcing the Tribunal ruling and recognising the court’s
jurisdiction. The Court also ruled that a Cape Town property owned by the
Zim government should be ‘attached’ for auction, to cover the government’s
debt to the farmers.
The Zim government then appealed this decision at the South Africa Supreme
Court of Appeal, which last month dismissed the appeal. This has been
described as a landmark legal decision and a positive development for the
rule of law in Southern Africa.
The fresh appeal at the Constitutional Court however now means that justice
for the farmers is further delayed. There is also still no word on the fate
of the SADC Tribunal, with SADC leaders still making no commitments to fully
reinstating it.