The Constitutional Court (Concourt) will on Tuesday hear argument on whether the South African government should have provided diplomatic protection to a South African citizen who had land taken away by the Zimbabwean government.
The Pretoria High Court ruled in July that the government had failed to consider and deal with Crawford von Abo’s application for diplomatic protection after his farms there were expropriated without compensation and he was arrested with a warrant for being on one of these farms.
The failure of the government to help him in respect of the violation of his rights in Zimbabwe was found to be inconsistent with South Africa’s Constitution, the judge found.
The respondents — the government, the president, the foreign affairs minister, trade and industry minister and justice minister — had a constitutional obligation to provide diplomatic protection for him and were ordered to take steps to remedy this.
In that judgment, the respondents were found to have shown a ”shocking dereliction of duty”, had failed to respond appropriately and had dealt with the matter in bad faith.
It was also noted that citizens of other countries in a similar position had received the support of their respective governments when trying to protect their investments.
Von Abo estimated that he had lost between R50-million and R60-million through the Zimbabwe government’s actions. — Sapa