Zimbabwe's Supreme Court on Tuesday gave President Robert Mugabe's government permission to proceed with its controversial land reforms, in an interim order which reversed a previous ruling.
The court in November had declared the land reform scheme unconstitutional and ordered a halt to the program, which has been accompanied by violence and the occupation of white-owned farmland by pro-government activists.
However, a bench dominated by new appointees said in a two-page ruling that administrative courts could resume processing the government's requests to acquire the mainly white-owned commercial farms for resettlement by blacks.
The interim ruling made no mention of the court's earlier order that police evict the occupiers who began forcibly invading white-owned farms in February 2000.
The original ruling had little effect on the land reforms, except for preventing the administrative courts from hearing individual white farmers' challenges.
After appointing a new chief justice widely considered a government supporter and three other new justices, Mugabe's government brought the mostly white Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) back to the Supreme Court seeking to legitimize its scheme.
The CFU, which represents most of Zimbabwe's 4,500 white farmers, had argued that the Supreme Court's initial finding in November was not subject to revision.
Farmers also said that violence has continued unabated on the farms, with beatings, theft, poaching and arson frequent and going unpunished around the country.
The ruling came after a month of diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the political crisis in Zimbabwe, which the government says is rooted in colonial-era inequities which left the tiny white minority owning most of the prime farmland.
Mugabe's critics say the crisis stems from his efforts to stay in power in the face of the country's first significant opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The farm violence has had a strong political coloring since the invasions began, with the occupiers closely tied to intimidation of the opposition and other perceived opponents to Mugabe.
Under a Commonwealth-brokered accord reached September 6 in Nigeria, the government agreed to curb the violence in exchange for British financing of the land reforms.
But on September 25, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said in a national television broadcast that the deal only required the government to implement land reforms.
Asked if the agreement reached in Abuja had a requirement for Zimbabwe to crack down on violence, Moyo said: "Not in the agreement. This is not a secret agreement. There is no such condition in the agreement."
The text of the agreement released in Abuja said the government was committed to "take firm action against violence and intimidation".
Talks between the government and white farmers broke down last week, apparently following the government's stance that it expected the farmers to give it 8.5 million hectares of land on an uncontested basis for resettlement of blacks.
On the eve of the Abuja talks early this month, the government accepted an offer of one million hectares of land from white farmers -- HARARE (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
