Court to rule in AfriForum-Zimbabwe case

The South Gauteng High Court was expected to deliver judgment on Monday in an application by the Zimbabwean government to stop the auctioning of its properties in Cape Town.

The civil rights group’s lawyer Willie Spies said the properties in Zonnebloem, Kenilworth and Wynberg were attached earlier this year to pay compensation to three evicted Zimbabwean farmers.

This was “to give effect to an earlier order granted by the North Gauteng High Court in favour of three farmers Louis Fick, Michael Campbell and Richard Etheredge”.

The court ruled in the farmer’s favour after a Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal ruled in November 2008 that Zimbabwe’s land reform process was illegal and racist, and ordered that evicted farmers be paid compensation.

AfriForum started attaching the three properties earlier this year, but the Zimbabwean government lodged a court application to stop the auctions.

German banking group, KFW Bank Gruppe, has in the meantime also attached the same properties, because Zimbabwe owes it more than 40-million euros.—Sapa