Zimbabwe property in Cape Town to be auctioned on Monday
After a marathon legal battle on behalf of Zimbabwean farmers against the Zimbabwean Government in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein and the Constitutional Court, the auction of a Zimbabwean house in Kenilworth in Cape Town is scheduled for Monday, 16 September 2013.
This will be the culmination of a four year struggle during which AfriForum assisted Zimbabwean farmers to pressurize the regime of Robert Mugabe by means of South African legal processes to abandon its illegal land grab programme. On 27 June 2013 the Constitutional Court decided unanimously in favour of the Zimbabwean farmers, thereby turning a finding of the Southern African Development Community tribunal in favour of an elderly Zimbabwean farmer, Mr Mike Campbell, and 77 other farmers into a court order.
The tribunal found in November 2008 that Mugabe's land grab programme was illegal and racist. During June 2009 the tribunal issued a punitive cost order against the Zimbabwean Government because Zimbabwe refused to acknowledge the finding.
AfriForum assisted the farmers to have the findings of the tribunal registered in South Africa and enforced after Zimbabwean courts refused to do so. After the successful registration of the tribunal order in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, properties belonging to the Zimbabwean Government in Cape Town were attached. The property located at 28 Salisbury Avenue in Kenilworth, Cape Town, was occupied by tenants, meaning that the commercial property is not protected by diplomatic immunity. Zimbabwe tried to have the process reversed in the High Court, the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court, but failed in every instance.
According to the AfriForum legal adviser, Willie Spies, the attorneys for Zimbabwe have approached him about the amount for the punitive cost order issued by the SADC tribunal. "If the order is paid, we will have succeeded, at least partially, to force Zimbabwe to comply with the findings of the tribunal, which they have refused to do up to this point. If it is not paid, the house will be auctionedon Monday. This will be the first time that the assets of a country found guilty of human rights violations will be auctioned in a neighbouring state, which is setting an important precedent," Spies said.
Statement issued by Willie Spies, Legal Representative, AfriForum, September 12 2013
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