HARARE - President Robert Mugabe is threatening "stern action" against Zimbabwe's white farmers, who have vowed to defy his "lawful orders" to stop farming and vacate their properties. Most farmers have indicated that they are ready to quit as long as they are compensated for development on the properties. Government will have to raise US$15 billion to pay out aMugabes threat comes hardly a week after Justice and Legal Affairs minister Patrick Chinamasa stated that Zimbabwe would not abide by a second ruling by a SADC Court in Windhoek that declared the land grab illegal.
Mugabe told a meeting of his Zanu (PF) Politburo last week that the SADC Tribunal ruling in a case brought by 75 evicted white farmers that the land grab was illegal and racist, had no force in Zimbabwe. Chinamasa claimed Zimbabwe was not party to the SADC Tribunal protocol.
“The government and its appropriate arms are ready to deal most effectively with any planned mischief-makers, said Mugabe. If the radical and reactionary group of racist commercial farmers wants to join … mischief-makers and law-breakers, then the same law-enforcing measures will extend to them.”