The special costs award against the Zimbabwe Government by the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria today is another significant step on the road towards justice and accountability in Zimbabwe and indeed everywhere in the Southern African Development Community.

Clearly under pressure, the Zimbabwe Government has demonstrated a complete about-turn, shifting from the stated position that it does not recognize the international court of the SADC Tribunal in Windhoek to attending the hearing which it erroneously brought against three Zimbabwean farmers in Pretoria last week.

The Zimbabwe Government’s deliberate dismissal of the SADC Tribunal’s jurisdiction led to its legal team being instructed to take the unprecedented step of walking out of a hearing in Windhoek.  Thereafter, the Zimbabwe government’s legal team failed to attend all hearings at SADC’s Highest Court of Appeal.

However, when the SADC Tribunal issued a costs award against the Zimbabwe Government and this was duly registered in South Africa, there was an immediate change in strategy. Zimbabwe’s Deputy Attorney General, Prince Machaya, was instructed to travel to Pretoria and to endeavour to stop the auction of houses belonging to the Zimbabwe Government.  The houses had initially been selected for attachment to meet the Tribunal’s cost award.

The Zimbabwe Government failed in its attempt, and the High Court in South Africa has issued a further cost award against it.  The auctions, which were in fact organized by the German banking group KFW Bank Gruppe, not Afriforum on behalf of the Zimbabwean farmers as the Zimbabwean Government erroneously believed, will go on.

This sends out a rallying signal to all the victims of injustice in Zimbabwe.  It confirms that judgments from the SADC Tribunal are final and binding and that they have the power to make the perpetrators of injustice accountable. The Zimbabwe Government must understand that it will be forced to pay for actions it continues to take that are against the SADC Treaty.

This victory on the eve of the SADC Summit, which takes place in Namibia from 16-18 August, is a victory for all SADC citizens who believe in justice and human rights. It sends a clear signal to those in power in Zimbabwe that the days of impunity are fading fast.  SADC Tribunal Rights Watch believes it will encourage other victims of human rights abuse, wherever they are in the Southern African Development Community, to stand up for their rights.  It is clear that judgments in their favour will carry weight.

Ben Freeth, – spokesman for SADC Tribunal Rights Watch