/ 28 May 2004

Zim farmer challenges land laws in top court

A white farmer went before Zimbabwe’s top court on Thursday to challenge parts of the controversial land reform laws under which his property was seized and given to black farmers.

George Quinnell and his wife, who owned a farm north of Harare, have been deprived of their only source of income since they were forced to leave their land in December 2002.

They appeared before all five judges in the Constitutional Court to try to have their eviction order overturned and amendments to the country’s land laws declared unconstitutional.

Lawyers specifically targeted amendments made in 2002 to the land laws that reduced from 90 days to 45 days the timetable given to farmers to wind up their affairs after receiving an eviction order.

The amendments also allow the government to resettle people on the farm and make it a crime for the farmer to interfere in the process.

”The act pursuant to the amendments does not meet the constitutional demand for a reasonable notice,” said South African lawyer Wim Trengrove, representing Quinnell.

Trengrove said Zimbabwe farmers facing an eviction order should be given ”a reasonable opportunity to wind up their affairs and adjust their lives to the acquisition of their land”.

The case has taken two years to come to court.

Since Quinnell started his legal battle in 2000, most of Zimbabwe’s white farmers have been evicted from their farms to make way for new black farmers.

The number of whites still in farming has reportedly dwindled to fewer than 400 out of an estimated 4 000 four years ago.

Before the legislation was amended, farmers were given 90 days to wind up their business and resettlement could not take place if they challenged the eviction order in court.

Trengrove argued that the amendments to the Land Acquisition Act, made two months after President Robert Mugabe won another term in office in March 2002, violated parliamentary procedure because Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa had not yet been sworn in when he introduced them.

Neither had Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, who signed Quinnell’s eviction notice, the court heard.

Mugabe swore in his cabinet ministers three months later, in August 2002.

State lawyer Loyce Matanda-Moyo however argued that as Mugabe was an incumbent, the ministers’ swearing in was not needed to make the cabinet effective.

”The mere fact that they [Quinnell’s lawyers] sued them as ministers means they recognised them as ministers,” she said.

Farmers who lost their land under the land reform programme were notified of the government’s intention to acquire their farms two years before receiving an eviction order, she argued.

Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku reserved judgement, saying the court needed time to consider submissions made. – Sapa-AFP