Afriforum attaches Zim state property in Cape Town

Civil rights group Afriforum seized a Cape Town property belonging to the Zimbabwean state yesterday, saying the move was the start of a "civil sanctions" campaign against President Robert Mugabe's government.

"This is a process aimed at helping all the people of Zimbabwe in a way that creates hope and shows that it is possible for civil society to institute civil sanctions against a regime that does not help its people," Willie Spies, a lawyer for Afriforum, said outside the offices of the sheriff for the district of Cape Town.

"Zimbabwean farmers, workers and ordinary citizens" had asked Afriforum for help in taking a legal process further in South Africa in September last year, Spies said.

The process started in November 2008 when the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal ruled in favour of Michael Campbell and 78 Zimbabwean farmers that the land reform programme in the country was "racist and unlawful".

Mugabe described the ruling as "nonsense and of no consequence" to Zimbabwe.

The tribunal followed up its ruling with a ruling of contempt of court and a costs order last June. On February 26, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria registered the tribunal's rulings.
Afriforum agreed to attach a Kenilworth property owned by Zimbabwe.

Its value, estimated at R2.5 million, was sufficient to cover the cost of the order.

Zimbabwean Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa dismissed the high court's move as "null and void", saying the attempt to attach assets was nothing more than "political grandstanding" and the property was under diplomatic immunity.

Spies said the attachment was not a recovery for damages for farmers who had lost their land.

It was, he said, "a symbolic gesture to show it is possible to enforce legal principles against Zimbabwean government in South Africa".

Meanwhile, a warning by Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti that commercial farmers must co-operate to avoid a situation in South Africa "worse than Zimbabwe" has drawn sharp reaction from the agricultural union TAU SA.

Nkwinti's statements, reportedly made during a recent interview with eNews, were "irresponsible", TAU SA president Ben Marais said yesterday.

"We see Minister Nkwinti's remarks as an ill-camouflaged threat to farmers that their land can be occupied the Zimbabwe way if they are not prepared to give their land away," he said.

By SAPA