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| author/source:News24 (SA) |
| published:Sun 11-Nov-2001 |
| posted on this site:Mon 12-Nov-2001 |
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| Article Type : News |
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| "It demonstrates that the government's fast track resettlement programme is illegal. Otherwise, why would they use executive powers?" |
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Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has used his sweeping powers of decree to force farmers off their land and sidestep their rights to have their eviction approved by the courts, the state press said on Saturday. The state-controlled daily Herald said regulations issued on Friday under Mugabe's "presidential powers" - close to state of emergency authority - allow the government to resettle people on white-owned farms before the high court has heard the owners' appeals. Farm union officials were shocked by Mugabe's latest move. "It demonstrates that the government's fast track resettlement programme is illegal," said David Hasluck, director of the Commercial Farmers' Union. "Otherwise, why would they use executive powers?" Mugabe's new decree on land seizure allows the government to effectively to confiscate land without legal recourse, he said.
Under current legislation, the government can issue farm owners with orders which state that their property has been acquired by government. However, Hasluck said, the government has no right to interfere with the farm until the owner has exercised his right to object to the high court. Only after the court has approved the acquisition can the state prepare the land and move settlers on. The court's approval is also needed before the owners' eviction is ordered. However, the new presidential decree allows the state to "survey, demarcate and allocate it (the land) for resettlement," and order the farmer off the land, the Herald said. Owners will have three months in which to abandon their land.
The move follows a series of high court rulings recently that have ordered squatters to stop harassing farmers and preventing them from carrying out farming operations while the farmers challenge the state's plans to seize their land. Friday's decree appeared to undermine any further appeals by farmers to be allowed to work without being attacked and harassed by squatters, Hasluck said. The move is expected to cause new anxiety of arbitrary mass evictions of white farmers as Mugabe attempts to build up support ahead of presidential elections due by the end of March 2002. The decree is the latest in a rash of legislation effected by the regime to enable it to seize land with the minimum of legal process, observers say. It also precedes the two-week survey due next week by a United Nations team to check if Mugabe's so-called "fast track land reform programme" is being carried out legally, transparently and without any disruption to agricultural output.
Thirty-nine farm workers and nine white farmers have been murdered since the thousands of state-backed militias began invading white-owned land in February 2000. Over 7 500 farm workers have been driven off their land and commercial agriculture - responsible for 85 per cent of the country's formally marketed output - is forecast to fall by 40% this farming season.
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