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Zimbabwe: Farmer Convicted
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 Published by the government of Zimbabwe |
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The Herald (Harare)
27 March 2008
Posted to the web 27 March 2008
Harare
Commercial Farmers' Union vice president and Beatrice farmer Gideon Stephanus Theron was on Tuesday convicted of breaching the Gazetted Land (Consequential Provisions) Act when he refused to pave way for a new farmer, Mr Elias Musakwa, at Zanka Farm.
Harare magistrate Mr Kudakwashe Jarabini will pass sentence today .
He dismissed defence counsel Mr Elasto Mugwadi's attempt to seek leave to appeal against the judgment. Mr Jarabini said it was not in dispute that Theron did not have an offer letter as required by the Act and that his continued stay at the farm since February last year was illegal.
He said Theron's defence that he had applied for the same piece of land under the A2 model fell away on the basis that he had not been issued an offer letter. "The reason why the accused person was not granted an offer letter does not have anything to do with the court, but it's for the ministry responsible for land allocation to explain. "It is also in dispute that Theron does not have a lease although he is relying on a permit purportedly issued in 2002, before the State acquired the land.
"Furthermore, the accused person failed to give a convincing account of how he got the said permit, that was vague and fake at face value. Telling the court that he only found the permit on his table is not convincing and the signatories on the said permit could not be identified. -- HR.
"The permit is therefore unacceptable to the court and invalid considering that offer letters and leases are specifically for large scale (A2) model farms while a permit is only issued for (A1) models ever since the beginning of the land reform.
"There is overwhelming evidence that the accused person committed the offence and he is accordingly found guilty as charged," ruled Mr Jarabini. Immediately after the ruling, Mr Mugwadi who had initially lost a bid to have the proceedings reviewed before judgment was passed unsuccessfully applied to have the sentence postponed to allow him to challenge the ruling at the High Court.
Mr Mugwadi, who was standing in for Mr Jonathan Samkange, said the trial was riddled with gross irregularities and that his client was denied the right to call his witnesses like Harare lawyer Mr David Drury.
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The court also heard that Theron had not been given time to prepare his closing submissions. Should the court insist on passing the sentence, Mr Mugwadi said, the defence should be accorded time to address on mitigation issues. Mr Musakwa's lawyer Mr Gerald Mlotshwa of Antonio Mlotshwa and Company Legal Practitioners said the conviction sets the tone for completion of the land reform exercise.
He also hailed the prosecution led by Mr Tawanda Zvekare for "working exceedingly hard" to ensure success in the matter. "There are hundreds of beneficiaries out there who have been waiting to make full use of their allocated land but have been denied that right by clearly unlawful actions of former commercial farmers who simply refuse to vacate.
"Hopefully we can start to see a process where similar cases are dealt with quickly so that land becomes fully productive once again and is not tied up in litigation," said Mr Mlotshwa.
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