ZIMBABWE: Government "ignores" Supreme Court
JOHANNESBURG, 13 November (IRIN) - The Zimbabwe government is ignoring a
Supreme Court order demanding the eviction of squatters illegally occupying
white-owned farms, a lawyer for the country's Commercial Farmers Union (CFU)
told IRIN on Monday.
"Information Minister Jonathan Moyo and his colleagues are not following the
law and are ignoring the court order," Alex Masterson of the law firm acting
for the CFU said.
The Supreme Court declared on Friday - with the consent of the
attorney-general's office - that the government's fast-track land
resettlement programme introduced in September violated sections 17 (1) and
sections 16 (1) of the constitution by not following the procedure laid down
in the government's own Land Acquisition Act. The order demanded the removal
of all so-called war veterans that had occupied farm properties contrary to
the terms of the Act, which says that property owners must be notified of
impending acquisitions, which must be confirmed by a court order where
objections arise.
"It means that the police are faced with an order in which they are required
to move people from the land where they have improperly settled, and the
government is not permitted to proceed without following procedure,"
Masterson said. The terms of the Land Acquisition Act state, among other
conditions, that the government must provide property owners with a notice
of intention to acquire and when faced with objections, the acquisition
order must be approved by a court.
But Lands and Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said on Saturday the
government would ignore the ruling. "There is no going back on the land
redistribution exercise," he was quoted as saying. The CFU on Monday
confirmed that farm occupations continued at the weekend, and police
officials said they had received no instructions to remove squatters.
Meanwhile, a second case brought against the government by the CFU is
awaiting a ruling by the Supreme Court, expected next month. Rather than
challenging the government's implementation of the Land Acquisition Act, the
case strikes at the heart of the constitutionality of the government's land
reform programme and the Act itself. It argues that land acquisition is
being applied on a "discriminatory basis" and "done against a background of
lawlessness which deprived the landholders of the constitutional right of
the protection of the law," Masterson said.
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