Harare - Zimbabwe's Supreme Court yesterday told President Mugabe's government to go ahead with plans to hand white-owned farms over to the black majority, in a turnaround that farmers called unprecedented.
The interim ruling reversed an order issued in November, which had found Mugabe's land reforms unconstitutional and told police to evict occupiers from white farms. While the nation's highest court could take months to deliver its full decision, the two-page order clears the legal obstacles that had blocked the government from processing its claims to white-owned farms.
The legal back-flip came in a four-to-one decision from a bench dominated by recent Mugabe appointees. Only one senior Supreme Court justice heard the case. The others have taken the bench since March. The legal advocate for the farmers said the decision was an "unprecedented" order that went beyond what government lawyers had asked for.