from MARCUS MUSHONGA in Harare, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Bureau
HARARE, (CAJ News) – THE Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) Tribunal Rights Watch has expressed concern at the issuance of title deeds to locals on land previously owned by white commercial farmers.
The other land was seized from members of the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA).
These title deed owners have not been compensated for their land, despite having final and binding court judgments which confirm that such original title deeds are still bona fide.
At an event on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Precabe farm near the central city of Kwekwe in the Midland province late December 2024, a handful of farmers, including president Mnangagwa, received “title deeds” to the farms they are currently on.
“Such deeds fly in the face of international law and the Southern African Development Community’s SADC Treaty of 1992,” said Ben Freeeth, spokesperson of the SADC Tribunal Rights Watch.
He said the final and binding judgement of the SADC Tribunal in the Mike Campbell case, would render these new “title deeds” unbankable and, in the final analysis, worthless unless there is first a full and fair settlement with the owners of the original title deeds.
In 2008, the tribunal found that a group of Zimbabwean farmers on the basis that they were deprived of their land without the right of access to the courts and the right to a fair hearing, both of which are essential human rights.
In this way, the tribunal held that the Zimbabwe government breached the provisions in the SADC Treaty.
“As is the case with the various and numerous attempts to issue new currencies in the Zimbabwean economy— there have been six attempts in 15 years to replace the US dollar as the primary currency — these new ‘title deeds’ will become worthless,” Freeth said.
Zimbabwe embarked on land reforms in 2000 to address colonial imbalances.
However, critics allege prime land ended up in the hands of government cronies and THE ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) bigwigs.
– CAJ News