Harare — THE High Court has nullified the Sadc Tribunal ruling which said white farmers, whose farms were acquired by Government for resettlement purposes, could remain on the farms because they had legal title to the farms.
Last year Justice Luis Mondlane, the president of the Sadc Tribunal, ruled that the white farmers had a clear legal title to their farms and should receive fair compensation from the Government for the properties lost during the land reform programme.
However, in a judgment handed down by High Court judge Justice Anne-Mary Gowora and made available yesterday, the court said the Sadc Tribunal's decisions do not apply and cannot be enforced in Zimbabwe unless Parliament ratifies the protocol that sets up the tribunal.
The ruling comes after Chegutu white farmer Richard Thomas Etheredge took President of the Senate Edna Madzongwe to court seeking to evict her from Stockdale Farm allocated to her by the Government under the land reform programme.
Justice Gowora dismissed the order sought by Etheredge with costs. Her ruling, among other issues, dealt with the applicability of the decisions of the Sadc Tribunal to Zimbabwe.
She noted in her judgment that the Sadc Treaty makes provisions for the establishment of a tribunal. The protocol, she said, is a document that sets up the tribunal and provides for the powers of the tribunal.
Justice Gowora said after examining the protocol very carefully she did not find in it any reference to the courts of any countries within Sadc.
She further noted that if indeed the intention was to create a tribunal that would be superior to the courts in the subscribing countries that intent is not manifest in the document presented to her.
"The supreme law in this jurisdiction is our Constitution and it has not made provisions for these courts to be subject to the tribunal," she said.
"This court is a court of superior jurisdiction and has an inherent jurisdiction over all people and all matters in the country, and its jurisdiction can only be ousted by a statutory provision to that effect.
"I do not have placed before me any statute to that effect and the protocol certainly does not do that."
In terms of the Sadc Tribunal's own rules as well as Zimbabwe's common law, the tribunal's decisions need to be registered in Zimbabwe, in the High Court for recognition and enforcement.
As it is, the tribunal judgment does not form part of the law of Zimbabwe until it has been registered and/or recognised in the country's High Court.
However, another Chegutu white farmer, Collin Cloete, has filed a court application citing Government and the Attorney-General's Office as respondents seeking to have the tribunal judgment registered and enforced in Zimbabwe.
But a resettled farmer who was allocated the farm that previously belonged to Cloete has also applied to the High Court to be joined in the action as an interested party.
The matter is going on with full arguments still to be heard by the High Court.
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Rocks and soil are very hard to eat and not very nutritious!
Soon, those people not already dead from Cholera will be giving away thousands of acres of farm just for a bowl of sadza!
Wake-up! Its not who owns the land that is important, it is what is done with it!
This story has made Zimbabwe a nation of beggars!
Well, now this tribunal issue is not about land. It is about the respect of basic laws.
The judge turns herself into ridicule. She argues that the protocol setting up the SADC tribunal has not been ratified by parliament in Zimbabwe and then goes on to say that since the judgement has not been registered with the Supreme Court in Zimbabwe, that judgement is not valid in the country.
Which is which? There must be an inquiry first into how many 4x4 vehicles, TV sets and computers she recently received as gifts from Mugabe?
It's a sad day for Zimbabwe and all Zimbos who uphold respect of basic laws.
SADC is wrong, and the Court is right.
"Legal title" is a nonsensical concept in ISSUE NUMBER ONE in Zimbabawe: THE LAND.
If the "legal titles" issued from theft of the land by the INVADERS, then the Court is manifestly right to view those titles as "fruit" of a felony, namely the theft. And, no sane legal legal system can allow such perfidy to the stand.
And, fall it has; and will, again and again and again.
THE LAND WILL NEVER REVERT, period and out.
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And what about the legal titles to land bought, sold or granted since 1980, by the Title system for all property in the country? Does everyone, black or white risk losing their homes and places of work because "Legal Title is 'nonsensical'"? Legal Title is a cornerstone of any modern economy and goes beyond title to land. Land is just another asset, and to develop and use that asset to it's full potential, one must be able to prove legal ownership of that asset to obtain the loans and funding needed to properly use the asset to it's full potential. No, the land issue is all but done. So few white farmers remained on their land by 2009 that the gross distortion of land ownership is now not about whites owning way too much land, it's now about the ZANU PF elite and their sycophants owning way too much land and wanting what last pieces they can get before things truly change. I am waiting to hear how loud the cries will be about 'I have Legal Title' when a future non ZANU PF government begins to strip the land away from the Zanu PF elite and truly redistribute it to the people SADC has correctly exposed the whole 'reform' process as being racist and targeting a minority. That is known as ETHNIC CLEANSING in other parts of the world. It has exposed Zanu PF as being just as immoral and cruel as the British South Africa Company or the apartheid administrations. They all used flimsy excuses to justify why they were 'right' to do what they did. Two wrongs don't make a right - there was a better way to tackle the land issue, and Mugabe had 20 years to do it properly and legally in way that didn't fundamentally threaten the country's food security and agricultural output. Instead he left it to fester and then, when he lost his ability to win elections easily in 2000 and his vets had had enough of his broken promises, he swiftly changed tack to build up this 'LAND ISSUE' and whip up this idea of 'justice' for the wrongs of whites now long dead and buried. Dress it up all you like, THE ISSUE has always been really about clearing all whites out of Zimbabwe once and for all and ZANU PF's right to rule the country forever. Mugabe banged on about it for decades with few people taking heed, now it is coming to pass.
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