SADC Tribunal to Hear Zim Farmer’s Case Next Month

Zambian Judge Charles Mkandawire, who is registrar of the Namibia-based Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal, said it would on March 26 hear farmer William Michael Campbell’s challenge against the legality of President Robert Mugabe’s controversial farm redistribution programme. We have finally set the date, the case will be heard on March 26 and the communication has been sent through to both parties, Mkandawire told ZimOnline by phone from Windhoek. We had problems previously with the Zimbabwean government saying it wasn’t given enough time to prepare for the case but we hope this will give both parties enough time to study the case and give us feedback in case there are queries, he said. The Tribunal last December barred the Harare administration from evicting Campbell from his Mount Camel farm near the town of Chegutu pending final determination of the farmer’s application that Mugabe’s land reforms violated the SADC treaty. Campbell first appealed against seizure of his property to Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court last March but took his case to the Tribunal after what his lawyers said was unreasonable delay by the country’s highest court in dealing with the matter. The Supreme Court last month finally dismissed Campbell’s appeal and Land Reform Minister Didymus Mutasa had said the court’s ruling opened the way for the government to seize his farm. However Harare has not taken the farm apparently waiting for the Tribunal to make a ruling. Campbell wants the SADC court to find Harare in breach of its obligations as a member of the regional bloc after it signed into law Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No.17 two years ago. The amendment allows the government to seize white farmland — without compensation – for redistribution to landless blacks and bars courts from hearing appeals from dispossessed white farmers. The white farmer has also asked the Tribunal to declare Zimbabwe’s land reforms racist and illegal under the SADC Treaty adding that Article 6 of the Treaty bars member states from discriminating against any person on the grounds of gender, religion, race, ethnic origin and culture. A ruling declaring land reform illegal would have far reaching consequences for Mugabe’s government, opening the floodgates to hundreds of claims of damages by dispossessed white farmers. Such a ruling could also set the Harare government on a collision course with its SADC allies particularly if – as it has always done with court rulings against its land reforms – refuses to abide by the Tribunal judgment. Farm seizures are blamed for plunging Zimbabwe into severe food shortages after the government displaced established white commercial farmers and replaced them with either incompetent or inadequately funded black farmers.