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Zimbabwe government to ignore African regional court order on land redistribution

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Government officials in Zimbabwe said Monday that they will disregard a South African Development Community Tribunal ruling that ordered Zimbabwe to halt its Land Reform Program. The tribunal held that the program's seizure of white-owned farms was racially motivated and therefore contrary to the Southern African Development Community treaty, but Zimbabwean Lands Minister Didymus Mutasa was quoted in Monday's Harare Herald as saying the program was justified because it corrected past racial disparities which had favored white farmers. Mutasa said the government would continue to operate the program and seize any remaining white-owned farms. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has been harshly criticized for his farm program, which since 2000 has sought to redistribute white-owned land among the nation's indigenous farmers. In February 2006, Mutasa said that, following controversial constitutional reforms, there are no longer any white farmers operating legally in Zimbabwe. Many observers attribute Zimbabwe's disastrous economic circumstances - including an inflation rate exceeding 231,000,000 percent - to the policy, under which previously productive farms have become barren under new inexperienced owners.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 01, 2008 (boomark / email).