Robert Mugabe found ‘in contempt’ of court over white farmers

The Southern African Development Community’s Tribunal has found that 77 white farmers suffered racial discrimination and ordered Zimbabwe’s regime to stop trying to seize their land. But Mr Mugabe, 85, responded by calling the ruling “nonsense” and his followers have singled out the farmers who brought the case for special persecution.

The Tribunal has now found Mr Mugabe “in breach and contempt” of its ruling. It has referred the case to a summit of southern African leaders due to be held next month. “This case will test regional leaders’ commitment to the rule of law,” said Jeremy Gauntlett, the farmers’s lawyer. “They could back their Tribunal or tacitly support Mugabe’s continued gross violations of human rights.”

All but a few hundred of Zimbabwe’s 4,000 white farmers have been evicted in the last seven years, with commerical agriculture collapsing into ruin. Mr Mugabe has consistently ignored court rulings in favour of the farmers’ property rights. When Zimbabwe’s own courts struck down his land seizure programme, he responded by vilifying and purging the judges concerned.

Daily Telegraph (UK)