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| author/source:SABC |
| published:Sat 1-Mar-2008 |
| posted on this site:Sat 1-Mar-2008 |
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| Article Type : News |
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| Being tried for failing to leave the farms |
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Zimbabwe yesterday withdrew charges against a group of white farmers who faced trial for resisting eviction from land targeted for seizure by the government, a defence lawyer said. President Robert Mugabe's government embarked on a drive in 2000 to take commercial farms from whites to resettle landless blacks. An estimated 600 out of the previous 4 500 white farmers now remain on the land. Thirteen white farmers from Zimbabwe's northwestern Mashonaland West province, who appealed against their eviction notices, were being tried for failing to leave the farms after a September 30 deadline lapsed. Defence lawyer David Drury told Reuters yesterday the state had dropped charges at least for the time being. "It's anybody's guess what will happen next, but they can revive the case at a later date. If they do, they must take note of the magistrate's ruling," he said.
Magistrate Tinashe Ndokera had ruled that the trial could not proceed before the state produced documents showing the acquisition of the farms had been done legally and while a related high court appeal had not been heard. The prosecution then immediately withdrew the charges. Drury said the defence would still proceed with an appeal to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal on the grounds that the government land seizures violated a regional pact safeguarding private property rights. He said the case there had been set for March 25. Had they been convicted, the farmers faced heavy fines or up to two years in jail. Critics say Mugabe's controversial land policy has plunged the southern African country - once a food exporter - into a severe economic crisis marked by food shortages and the highest inflation in the world, at above 100 000%. Mugabe says his land seizure drive was meant to correct colonial imbalances that saw a few white farmers owning the bulk of the country's prime farmland.
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