Zimbabwe:Zimbabwe pulls out of SADC court over land reforms
1st October 2009
HARARE – Zimbabwe has pulled out of a regional court, which ruled that 78 white farmers can keep their farms because Harare’s land reforms programme discriminated against them.

A year ago, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal ruled that Zimbabwe had violated the treaty governing the 15-nation regional block by violently seizing the white owned farms.

President Robert Mugabe has refused to abide by the ruling, which said his previous government was “in breach of the SADC treaty with regards to discrimination.”

The failure to respect the judgment had caused friction within the unity government Mr Mugabe formed with his former foe and now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in February.

Last week, Mr Tsvangirai said one of the challenges the government faced was the refusal by Mr Mugabe’s Zanu PF party to respect international protocols.

The Prime Minister had vowed that he will ensure Zimbabwe complies with the SADC Tribunal’s ruling.

But on Wednesday, Justice and Legal Affairs Minister, Mr Patrick Chinamasa said the council of ministers chaired by Mr Tsvangirai has endorsed Zimbabwe’s decision to pull out of the SADC Tribunal until the court’s mandate had been reviewed.

He said the ministers had agreed that the jurisdiction and functions of the court based in Windhoek, Namibia should be reviewed in line with a resolution by the SADC summit held in the DRC.

"It was also agreed that the review should look at the persons or entities over which it will exercise that jurisdiction and the Tribunal’s relationship to national courts such as our Supreme Court as well as determining which cases it can look at as a court of first instance and, which cases it can adjudicate upon only after exhaustion of domestic remedies," Mr Chinamasa told the Herald newspaper.

Zimbabwe argues that the tribunal is not yet operational because the protocol establishing it has not been ratified by the requisite two thirds of the regional block’s membership as per the conditions set in the SADC treaty.

“The meeting was satisfied that the tribunal was not yet operational because the protocol giving it powers, functions and parameters of jurisdiction and the amendment have not yet been ratified by the requisite two-thirds membership of SADC as required by the treaty and the protocol itself,” he said.

“This means that any decisions that the Tribunal took are not binding on Zimbabwe because it is not yet legally subsisting.

“Zimbabwe is among those countries which have not yet ratified and therefore is not yet even a State party to the protocol.”

Only Namibia, Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius and Lesotho have ratified the protocol.

Zimbabwe’s remaining few white commercial farmers say they are under siege from Mr Mugabe’s militant supporters who stepped up the farm invasions following the formation of the unity government.

The invaders who include senior security commanders and Zanu PF officials, with the veteran ruler’s tacit approval, have ignored court rulings ordering them to stop interfering with farming activities.

Government’s decision to pull out of the tribunal means the farmers now have nowhere to turn to for protection.

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