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Zim farmer ordered off land
26/01/2008 11:48 - (SA)
Harare - A white Zimbabwean farmer has been ordered to vacate his farm after the Supreme Court dismissed his application to stop the government from acquiring it, a state daily reported on Saturday.
Justice Luke Malaba dismissed the constitutional challenge by Michael Campbell, a former owner of Mount Camel in Chegutu, 100 kilometres southwest of the capital.
In his ruling, Malaba upheld the sections which Campbell claimed infringed his fundamental rights as enshrined in Zimbabwe's Bill of Rights for lack of merit.
"The application is accordingly dismissed," Malaba is quoted as saying by the Herald.
Last month a southern African regional tribunal in Namibia ruled that Campbell could remain on his property pending proceedings from a SADC tribunal.
Campbell is currently facing criminal charges in Chegutu magistrates court for remaining on his farm and could be jailed for up to two years if convicted.
Planned evictions
In October last year, a group of 11 remaining white farmers in Zimbabwe filed an appeal seeking a court order to stop their planned evictions.
The move came after a magistrate in Chegutu ruled the group had been abusing the legal process in order to delay their fate.
Some nine years ago, the Zimbabwean government embarked on a controversial reform programme to acquire millions of hectares of land from whites and redistribute it to blacks.
A small group of about 4 500 white farmers owned a third of the country's land, including 70% of prime farmland before the government launched the programme.
An earlier version of this story mistakenly stated that Campbell could remain on his property pending proceedings from Zimbabwe's Supreme Court.
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