South Africa, in a case that could set precedents, has awarded a Cape Town house that belongs to the Zimbabwe government to white Zimbabwe farmers whose land was confiscated under President Robert Mugabe’s land reform programme. Other commercial property including jets, owned by the Zimbabwe government but rented out, is reported to be under threat of confiscation by South African courts. The farmers are turning to a court in South Africa because, reports the BBC, “in 2008, the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) court ruled that the group of more than 70 Zimbabwean farmers should be allowed to return to their farms unhindered.” Collum Makumbirofa, head of the Zimbabwe Foundation for Reason and Justice, says in an AllAfrica report “that the Mugabe regime regards the Sadc ruling as ‘nonsense and of no consequence’ demonstrates the extent to which the Zanu (PF) government pays scant regard to the rule of law.’”
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News story, GenevaLunch, 31 March 2010.
Filed under: World news
Tags: Cape Town, confiscated, land reform programme, property, Robert Mugabe, South Africa, white farmers, Zimbabwe