Posted on 12/05/2001 12:08:25 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe's top court has declared the government's plan to seize white-owned farms legal, overturning its own previous ruling that the seizures were unconstitutional.
In a judgment released Tuesday, four of the five Supreme Court justices appointed to hear the new seizure case said they were satisfied the government's "fast track" land nationalization program was lawful and "sufficiently complied" with the constitution.
Last year's Supreme Court ruling declared the government's methods of land seizures illegal and in breach of constitutional ownership rights and government land laws.
Some of the judges who made that ruling have been replaced in recent months.
Four of the five judges hearing the new case, including Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, were appointed recently by President Robert Mugabe. Those four voted to uphold the government's land seizure program.
The Supreme Court traditionally had only five judges until Mugabe expanded the bench to eight in July, adding three judges considered loyal to the ruling party. The chief justice usually appoints small panels of judges to hear each case.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has described the court's expansion as a political ploy designed to turn the court into a government puppet.
Armed ruling party militants have occupied more than 1,700 white-owned farms since March 2000, demanding they be redistributed to landless blacks. The government has listed some 4,500 properties -- about 95 percent of farm land owned by whites -- for nationalization without compensation and last month warned about 800 farmers they had three months to vacate their land and homes.
Monday's court ruling rejected white farmers' assertions that the land seizures were taking place amid violence and a breakdown of law and order in farming districts.
It said the government had met the previous court's order to prove it had restored law and order and a sustainable land reform program in those districts.
Though it was not disputed that clashes took place on farms, "by definition, the concept of rule of law foresees a situation in which behavior prescribed as criminal will occur. The presence of the rule of law does not mean a totally crime free environment," the court said.
Adrian de Bourbon, the lawyer for the Commercial Farmers Union, had asked Chidyausiku and two other new appointees to recuse themselves from the hearing, alleging they had shown open allegiance to the ruling party and its land seizures.
None of the judges stepped down.
Monday's ruling described de Bourbon's request as "unbridled arrogance and insolence."
"This is the first and last time such contempt of this court will go unpunished," it said.
A spokesman for the union said farmers were surprised and disappointed by the decision.
"The ruling does not seem to be based on the strict application of the law or the rules of natural justice, but on a political argument," the spokesman said.
"We are obviously surprised and shocked by this because this is the highest court. But we hope the government will still find the wisdom to be reasonable," he said.
Judges have been under mounting pressure from the government and ruling party militants. Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay was forced out after the government warned him and other judges they would not be protected from ruling party militants, who stormed the Supreme Court last December.
These tribalist thugs are going to see to it that there isn't a white person left on that continent (if the whites there have any sense whatsoever.........they'll get out NOW) and that AIDS, starvation, and tribal warfare will finish off the blacks. Africa will be reduced to a vacant dustbowl.
Then, and only then, whites can come back and re-tame the land to make it productive once more.
Can't happen soon enough, if you ask me.
A National Foods executive said the salt had not been put on the market because it had been imported from neighboring Botswana at the parallel exchange rate of 300 Zimbabwean dollars to the U.S. dollar. At that rate, nearly six times the government's fixed exchange rate, the company would take a huge loss if it sold the salt at the market price set by the government, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The company had been negotiating with government officials to find a compromise price for the salt.
In a speech to ruling party officials Friday, Mugabe attacked National Foods, which he described as "an Anglo American company of Nicky Oppenheimer," the chairman of the mining giant. "They have been hoarding salt. ... They want people on the streets against our government. What kind of mischief is this?" he said, according to the state-owned Sunday Mail. "We will take over their enterprises."***
A recently revised Mineral and Petroleum Development Bill will make black economic empowerment a compulsory requirement when granting mining and prospecting permits to private companies. ''Corporations in this country had an opportunity to institute affirmative action the right way, and it is fair to say they failed dismally,'' Danisa Baloyi, executive director of the National Black Business Caucus, recently told the Sowetan newspaper. ''Now they must be made to change.''
Detractors charge that black empowerment policies have been a useful tool for the ruling elite to appoint unskilled and inexperienced government cronies in the public and private sector, which they argue could potentially have dire consequences for the economy. Critics also insist that compulsory black empowerment has resulted in a brain drain, because white men in particular are leaving companies, often for opportunities overseas, when they realize that they stand little or no chance of being promoted.***
More than 60 per cent of white farmers were legally obliged to stop farming last week, and have to abandon their homesteads by Aug 8. Mr Mugabe accused white farmers of "disrupting land reforms." He added: "Confrontation with the Government will not work. If anything it will make us angrier than we already are. Collaborating with former oppressors such as the G8 will not save them because the land is ours."
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation says six million people, or nearly half Zimbabwe's population is in need of food aid, and identified Mr Mugabe's disruption of commercial agriculture as a main cause. Recent statistics from the Food Early Warning System in Harare show even poor countries such as Zambia and Mozambique produced more maize than Zimbabwe, which used to grow a surplus until Mr Mugabe ordered supporters to invade white-owned farms 28 months ago.***
In handing down their decision, the judges avoided all criticism by citing several precedents in U. S. case law...............
Obasanjo has also briefed United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan on his meeting with Mugabe. "He was so heartened that he wanted to meet Mugabe," said Obasanjo. Mbeki did not discuss the crisis with Mugabe this week. There has been a cooling of relations between the two leaders since a confidential letter Mbeki sent to Mugabe urging him back to the negotiating table was leaked to Zimbabwe's state-owned press. McKinnon said it was not clear what steps Obasanjo and Mbeki would take next. "They want to keep that very much to themselves but they want to keep up the dialogue with President Mugabe, obviously, and try and normalise things." ***
Sunday Times of South Africa - Dec 30, 2001 - Annus horribilis as Aids and terrorism wreak tragedy
What they won't be telling you is that this is the blueprint to ensure that Africa is under total Marxist control - and any African nations that are not yet Marxist will yet go that way. I warned in my book (Government by Deception - which can be purchased from www.Etherzone.com), that this is the "Marxist Brotherhood" in action. They will see to it that they keep all their buddies in power. That is why, although there are 54 countries in Africa, you will almost never hear anyone criticise Robert Mugabe. Why? Because he is among friends, and they are all going to keep each other firmly entrenched in power. You wait and see.***
Mugabe last visited Cuba in April 2000, when he headed his country's delegation at the summit of the Group of 77 developing nations held in Havana. Mugabe, 78, has ruled Zimbabwe since it gained independence from Britain in 1980. As his popularity has waned, he has imposed curbs on journalists and opposition parties, and many of his critics have been attacked or threatened with prosecution.
After March elections that independent observers said were riddled with irregularities, the 15-nation European Union imposed an embargo against Mugabe's government. The United States also has imposed sanctions. Zimbabwe's government has targeted about 95 percent of farms owned by the country's white minority for seizure, saying it wants to redistribute them among landless blacks. The often violent program of seizures has been condemned by Western governments and has contributed to widespread food shortages. [End]
Two of its most controversial leaders - Cuba's Fidel Castro and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe - will not be there. The European Union is telling the ACP - which accounts for more than 650 million people and includes 40 of the world's poorest countries - that if they want to keep getting European aid, they will have to start removing their trade barriers to Europe's exports. Under an agreement signed between the group's members and the EU in 2000 at Cotonou in the African state of Benin, the European Union is also linking trade and aid to ACP states which impose safeguards to prevent corruption.***
"Teacher, Anti-colonialist, Friend of Cuba" - Mugabe arrives in Havana - Good LINKS to Gadaafi's grip on Zimbabwe.
"We know that Gaddafi is the only person who is in support of Mugabe's land reform programme which is completely destroying your country," said Corrie from Scotland. "And he is the only person who has agreed to accept your currency for fuel. But that will create a huge deficit for your future generations - that is mortgaging the country." The State media said Mugabe left for a week-long state visit to Cuba but sources within the government said he might make a surprise visit to Venezuela, a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).
Venezuelan Energy and Mines Minister, Alvaro Silva Calderon, was appointed the Opec secretary-general last month. "The fuel situation is getting worse and with the Libyans reportedly turning a cold shoulder after amassing land in Zimbabwe, there is a pressing need to take the begging bowl to other oil-producing countries like Venezuela to avert the crisis," said the source. "Why would the President honestly spend a week in Cuba when he has been there before?" he said. Last week, parts of the country were hit by fuel shortages triggered by hoarding amid reports that the commodity was in short supply.***
(July 8, 2000)***Two Cuban doctors who languished for more than a month in a Zimbabwe prison after seeking political asylum left the country Friday on a commercial jet for Stockholm, Sweden, according to diplomatic and U.S. government sources.------ Air France crew members refused to board the doctors after the pair managed to write a note saying they were being ``kidnapped.''--- South African authorities sent them back to Zimbabwe, where they were imprisoned. An end to their saga appeared imminent when the United States offered to take the doctors in. Diplomats planned to fly the Cubans to Nairobi, Kenya, where INS officials planned to process paperwork and fly the doctors to the United States. But a last-ditch communique from Castro blocked the plans, officials said. Castro asked Mugabe, once a leading African communist, to ship the doctors anywhere in the world -- except the United States.***
Nope. I was expecting this ruling to go against the white farmers, I would have been shocked had it gone the other way. After all, Africa is the most screwed up continent on the face of the earth, and I expect no better from these idiots.
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