Sale in execution of Zimbabwe properties to proceed
AfriForum's legal team will instruct the sheriff in Cape Town forthwith to proceed with arrangements of a sale in execution of immovable property belonging to the Government of Zimbabwe after the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein's dismissal of the Zimbabwean Government's appeal against an earlier ruling by the North Gauteng High Court authorising the sale.
If the sale goes ahead, it will be the first time in international legal history that a state that had committed gross human rights violations, is effectively punished by the attachment and sale of its property.
The litigation began when a Zimbabwean farmer, Mr Mike Campbell approached the SADC Tribunal in Windhoek in 2008 after he and his family were targeted by the controversial land grabs of Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe. The tribunal, which consisted of five judges from various Southern African states, ruled in November 2008 that the Zimbabwean land reformprocess was illegal and racist and that Mr Campbell and 77 other farmers who intervened in his application, should be left in peace and their property rights restored.
In the run-up to the proceedings before the SADC Tribunal, the elderly Mr Mike Campbell, his wife Angela and son-in-law Ben Freeth, were brutally assaulted by war veterans and intimidatedto abandon their action before the tribunal.
The case nevertheless proceeded and Campbell succeeded.
Due to the severity of his injuries during the brutal assault, Mr Campbell's health quickly deteriorated and he passed away in April last year.
AfriForum assisted Zimbabwean farmers with legal action which resulted in the registration of the tribunal's finding in the North Gauteng High Court in February 2010 and the attachment of aZimbabwean government owned property in Kenilworth, Cape Town, to satisfy a punitive cost order granted by the tribunal.
Statement issued by Willie Spies, Legal representative: AfriForum, September 20 2012
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