Washington, DC — A Zimbabwe High Court decision Wednesday appears to have given hundreds of white farmers, ordered by the government to leave their land, a last-minute reprieve.

Judge Charles Hungwe ruled that a mortgaged farm could not be taken for resettlement by the state without first informing the institution holding the mortgage.

In the specific case leading to the decision, the court ruled that government seizure of land owned by Andrew Kockett would be illegal because it had not informed the mortgage-holder, National Merchant Bank.

Twenty-nine hundred of Zimbabwe's four thousand white farmers had been given until midnight Thurday to leave their farms or face a fine and up to two years in prison. The number of farms reprieved by the court's decision remains unclear.

"Farmers in the same situation as me - which is I believe the majority - in very few cases has the bond holder been served with these notices," said Kockett during an interview on South Africa radio.

Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe launched a drive for land restribution two years ago arguing that his resettlement program would help rectify the wrong of British colonialism which put most of the country's best land in white hands. His opponents charge that his real objectives are political and that the policy has resulted in economic disaster.