Zimbabwe court cancels eviction orders on 54 farmers

The Zimbabwe high court yesterday cancelled eviction orders served on 54 white farmers as President Robert Mugabe ruled out any possibility of talks with the white landowners, telling them they had no rights to control property in Zimbabwe.

The beleaguered white farmers have appealed for a meeting with Mr Mugabe to discuss the seizures of at least 2,900 farms, but Mr Mugabe told state-run radio that there was "no room for talks". He said the rights of the white farmers to own land in Zimbabwe were secondary to those of blacks.

"There is no room for negotiations because the real owners of this land are asserting their rights and reclaiming their land," he told a gathering in the south-eastern town of Chiredzi. "If you (whites) want to live with us, to farm alongside us, we, the rightful owners of our ancestral land, will carve out some land for you. But you cannot decide what you will have in our country."

High Court judge Justice Benjamin Paradza nullified the eviction orders served on the 54 white farmers, saying they had been wrongly served under Mr Mugabe's land seizure laws.

The farmers' lawyer, Jeremy Callow, told journalists new eviction orders would have to be prepared and issued if the farms were still to be confiscated for the resettlement of black peasants. "We will have to wait and see what action the government wishes to take. If they wish to lawfully acquire the farms at issue, they must follow their own laws."

The justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, urged new black settlers to ignore court challenges and move on to targeted farms to begin preparations ahead of the rainy season which starts in October.

But Mr Chinamasa had conceded that some of the orders served on 2,900 white farmers asked to vacate their farms by 8 August had been wrongly issued. He told white farmers not to feel comforted by court judgments in their favour because he would seek legal challenges reducing the waiting periods for farmers served with new notices from 90 to five days before they are forcibly evicted.

Jenni Williams, of Justice in Agriculture, a pressure group that has urged farmers to fight evictions in the court, said yesterday's ruling would enable the 54 affected farmers to resume production on their land.

But all indications were that militants would heed Mr Chinamasa's call and target many of the farmers. Police have arrested nearly 250 farmers of the 1,800 who defied the orders to leave their land by 8 August.

Most were freed on bail but ordered not to return to their land. Many other farmers have been evicted by Mr Mugabe's officials and militant supporters. They include an elderly couple evicted from its land since been confiscated by Mugabe's young wife, Grace.

Mr Mugabe has said he wants to complete the seizures of 95 percent of all white land in Zimbabwe by the end of the month. Private media reports in Zimbabwe say many prime farms have gone to politicians, military and police officers and Mr Mugabe's cronies, despite his claim that his land reforms are benefiting black peasants.

Relief agencies blame the seizures for food shortages threatening half of the 12.5 million people with starvation.