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SADC Tribunal to hear farmer's case next month
Simplicious Chirinda, ZimOnline
February 05, 2008

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=2651

HARARE – The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal is expected to sit next month to hear an appeal by a Zimbabwean white farmer who is appealing against the seizure of his property by the Harare authorities.

Tribunal registrar, Justice Charles Mkandawire, yesterday told ZimOnline that the case between William Michael Campbell and President Robert Mugabe’s government had been set down for mid-March in Windhoek, Namibia.

"We are just about to set the date for the full hearing and we are looking at mid next month as the date of commencement.

"What is now left is for us to communicate the date and venue to Michael Campbell and the Zimbabwean government, then the full hearing can commence," said Mkandawire.

The Tribunal had initially said it would deal with the matter at the end of January.

The SADC Tribunal last December barred the government of Zimbabwe from evicting Campbell from his farm in Chegutu pending final determination of the legality of Harare’s controversial land reforms.

Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court last month however dismissed Campbell’s appeal against the seizure of his property paving way for the government to evict the white farmer from the property.

State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa last month warned that Harare would go ahead with plans to evict Campbell after his lost his appeal at the Supreme Court. It was still not clear yesterday if Campbell was still at his property.

Campbell took his case to the SADC Tribunal last March after his lawyers argued that Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court was deliberately dragging its feet in dealing with the matter.

The Zimbabwean farmer wants the Tribunal to find Harare in breach of its obligations as a member of SADC after it signed into law Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No.17 two years ago.

The Constitutional amendment allows Mugabe’s government to seize farmland without compensation and bars Zimbabwean courts from hearing appeals from dispossessed white farmers.

He also wants 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 race, ethnic origin and culture.

Zimbabwe has battled perennial food shortages over the past eight years after Mugabe chased the majority of white farmers who produced the bulk of the country’s food and replaced them with newly resettled black farmers. – ZimOnline

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