Court orders state to help man in Zim land battle

Judge Bill Prinsloo found yesterday that Crawford von Abo, of Bothaville, had a right to diplomatic protection from the South African government where his rights were being violated by the Zimbabwean government. 

Judge Prinsloo ordered the government to take all necessary steps to remedy Von Abo’s rights and report back to the court within 60 days. Von Abo (75) had been struggling for more than six years to force the South African government to act against Zimbabwe’s confiscation of land belonging to South Africans. 

His pleas fell on deaf ears, and his counsel earlier told the court that Von Abo’s endeavours to receive help from the government were like “the Yellow Brick Road – the road to nowhere”. Von Abo earlier told the court that the Zimbabwean government had violated his rights in 1997 by destroying his property interests in a number of farms in that country as part of its policy of expropriating white-owned farms. He was not paid any compensation. 

Judge Prinsloo said he regretted to say that “it is difficult to resist the conclusion that the respondents (government) were simply stringing the applicant along and never had any serious intention to afford him proper protection. Their feeble efforts, if any, amounted to little more than quiet acquiescence in the conduct of their Zimbabwean counterparts and their ‘war veteran’ thugs,” 

Judge Prinsloo said. He said Von Abo had demonstrated that his property rights in Zimbabwe had been unlawfully expropriated, under international law, and that he had never been compensated for it. The judge found that the South African government had dealt with the Von Abo matter in bad faith and irrationally. 

As part of his order, Judge Prinsloo indefinitely postponed Von Abo’s claim for damages against the government regarding the farms and business interests he had lost in Zimbabwe. In this regard Von Abo had indicated during the trial that the total conservative damages regarding the six farms, including implements and other assets he had lost, amounted to about R60-million.

 From The Star (SA)