The General Council of the Bar of South Africa (GCB) has called for a probe into reports that Zimbabwe presidential affairs minister Didymus Mutasa The bar council said it learnt with shock and dismay of reports that a Zimbabwean minister of state has encouraged villagers to disobey a court order with which they are not in agreement.
The GCB calls on the government of Zimbabwe to investigate the reports and to take corrective action to avoid a total collapse of the judicial system in Zimbabwe, it said in a statement.
Mutasa earlier this month ordered a group of villagers in Chipinge who are occupying a coffee plantation to ignore a court ruling ordering them to vacate the land. Mutasa has reportedly defended his actions by saying he was protecting the poor.
The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) has since said that Mutasas comments are responsible for the recent intensified onslaught against the remaining commercial farming community.
In the past few weeks at least 18 farmers have faced land attacks from invaders, despite being in possession of court orders allowing them to continue farming on their properties.
Post published in: News