Mugabe is flouting SADC tribunal; DA reiterates its call for arms embargo
President Robert Mugabe is paying no attention to the findings of the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) Judicial Tribunal, which ‘directed' the Zimbabwean government to ‘take all necessary measures to protect the possession, occupation and ownership of the land of the applicants ... directly or indirectly whether by its agents or others, to evict from, or interfere with, the peaceful residence on, and these farms, by the applicants.' (CASE No. SADC (T) 02/07).
Along with Zimbabwe's ironically misnamed Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Mugabe has dismissed the findings as not binding on Zimbabwe.
An 18 September 2009 legal opinion authored by Senior Counsel Jeremy Gauntlett representing the Commercial Farmers Union found that Zimbabwe is indeed bound by the rulings of the SADC Judicial Tribunal and that there are no material grounds for his dismissive conduct. Mugabe therefore continues to act with impunity.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is greatly concerned about Mugabe's subversion of aspects of the Global Political Agreement. Statements on the further seizure of farmland as well as his promise that ZANU-PF will win the next election sound ominous. We are greatly disappointed that President Jacob Zuma, when he was head of the SADC until early September, never called Mugabe to account for his violations of the rule of law.
We are also alarmed by the silence of the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU), organisations that were rightly critical of the abusive treatment the organised working class of Zimbabwe received under Mugabe. It seems therefore that the tri-partite alliance of the ANC-SACP-COSATU has gone soft on Mugabe.
By all accounts it seems as if Zimbabwe's human rights' record is worsening. Ben Freeth and Michael Campbell, two of the litigants involved in the SADC ruling, had their farmhouses raised to the ground. This is only the start of what is likely to be another round of widespread intimidation and violent pacification of ordinary Zimbabweans ahead of elections.
We are not fooled by Mugabe and his cronies. This is no time to lift sanctions. The DA believes that arms sanctions should also be imposed on Zimbabwe and that we should not be party to the export of ammunition for the use of the Zimbabwean army, for they are likely to turn it on their own citizens.
Statement issued by Wilmot James, MP, Democratic Alliance representative on the SADC parliamentary forum, September 23 2009
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