AFRIFORUM TO COURT RE RSA / ZIMBABWE AGREEMENT
AfriForum will assist a group of South African farmers with land in Zimbabwe this week to prevent a discriminatory investment agreement between the governments of South Africa and Zimbabwe, which is to be signed in Harare on Friday.
This agreement, known by the abbreviation BIPPA, has the objective of protecting current and future investments of South Africans in Zimbabwe, but expressly excludes the investments of South African farmers who have been affected by the land reform programme of Robert Mugabe.
AfriForum has made the legal opinion of one of the foremost South African human rights advocates available to the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies. This opinion makes it clear that the proposed agreement is in contravention of the South African Constitution, several international legal principles, as well as existing court orders of the Supreme Court in Pretoria and the tribunal of SADEC.
If the signing ceremony were to proceed, an application for an interdict against it will be submitted to the North Gauteng Supreme Court in Pretoria on Friday.
The group of farmers are being represented by Mr Louis Fick, a farmer of the farm Friedawil near Chinoye in the east of Zimbabwe. Fick is a South African citizen and has been farming in Zimbabwe in Friedawil since 1993.