Brigitte Weidlich
31 March 2008
Windhoek — More than 70 white Zimbabwean farmers evicted from their land can remain on their property as they await further legal proceedings, a regional tribunal ruled on Friday.
"The tribunal grants the application for interim relief," said Judge Luis Mondlane, President of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal, which is based in Windhoek.
"The four farmers who are not living on their farms anymore are not granted relief, but all the others will be added to the matter of the Campbell case."
Zimbabwean farmer William Michael Campbell last December had sought the relief for himself, his family and all his employees on his Farm Mount Carmell "from continued onslaught of invasions and intimidation", court papers said.
Campbell further asked the tribunal for an order allowing him to remain on his farm, arguing that a change in the Zimbabwean constitution to expropriate farms without paying compensation was against treaties and protocols signed by all 14 SADC member states, including Zimbabwe.
The SADC tribunal granted Campbell interim relief at the end of last year until a detailed hearing, which was supposed to start last week, but it was postponed to hear the joint application of the other 77 farmers.
"All 74 cases, including that of Campbell, will be heard on May 28," Judge Mondlane added.
Lawyer Saima Nambinga, who represented all the applicants, was satisfied.
"The ruling is as we expected and we hope the Zimbabwean government will comply as it did with the Campbell case," she told The Namibian on Friday.
Zimbabwean Deputy Attorney General Prince Machaya said his government would comply with the order.
"We are not satisfied with the ruling, but we will comply," Machaya told The Namibian after the proceedings.
The SADC Tribunal hearing is set for three days from May 28.
Some eight years ago, the Zimbabwean government embarked on a controversial reform programme to acquire millions of hectares of land from white commercial farmers and redistribute it to blacks.
A small group of about 4 500 white farmers owned a third of the country's land, including 70 per cent of prime farmland, before the government launched the land reform.
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