A GROUP of 78 white farmers has been told by a regional tribunal that they can keep their Zimbabwean farms because the government's ongoing attempts to evict them were discriminatory.
In a landmark decision, Judge Luis Mondlane, president of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal, yesterday ruled that President Robert Mugabe's regime had violated the treaty governing the 15-nation regional bloc by trying to seize the white-owned farms.
The Zimbabwean government was "in breach of the SADC treaty with regards to discrimination", Judge Mondlane told a packed courtroom in Windhoek, Namibia.
The court also ruled that the Zimbabwean government had violated the treaty by failing to pay fair compensation to farmers whose farms had already been taken.
The group of farmers was led by William Michael Campbell, who sought court relief from a "continued onslaught of invasions and intimidation", according to court papers. Mr Campbell was given the protection of the court for the case's duration, but shortly after Zimbabwe's presidential run-off on June 27th he, his wife and their son-in-law were abducted from their farm in Chegutu district and severely beaten at a torture camp.
The elderly farmer claims his torturers tried to get him to withdraw his application to the tribunal. Many of the other farmers have also been attacked and harassed, despite court protection, and three have been dispossessed since the case began last December.
Since 2000 Mr Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party have seized over 3,500 white-owned commercial farms under the government's land reform programme, which has been chaotic and often violent.
The programme was launched under the pretence of giving land back to poor black Zimbabweans stripped of their ancestral homes under white colonial rule, but analysts say it has been a disaster and has only led to the collapse of the country's agricultural sector.
The verdict is the first major ruling by the new tribunal, which was established early last year as a means to ensure that the founding principles of the regional bloc, which include human and property rights, are adhered to by member-states. However, getting Zimbabwe's government to comply with the verdict will be a key test of its influence. To date Mr Mugabe's regime has ignored the court's directives on the case.
Zimbabwe's ambassador to Namibia, Chipo Zindoga, said that the ruling had "far-reaching implications" for the country's land reform programme. "For obvious reasons we cannot be happy about this decision," he said.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change said yesterday it had reached an "understanding" with Zanu-PF on a constitutional amendment crucial to forming the unity government envisaged under the September 15th power-sharing deal.
Negotiators have been in talks in South Africa since the beginning of the week and are set to return to their parties to discuss the amendment, which sets out the powers of the new prime minister.