Some white Zimbabwean commercial farmers who lost their farms under land reform have asked the Southern African Development Community tribunal in Namibia to find the Zimbabwean government in contempt for ignoring a 2008 judgment by the tribunal saying farm seizures were illegal and discriminatory.
The farmers also intend to ask the next SADC summit to take up Harare's refusal to respond to the tribunal ruling and rejection of its jurisdiction.
Commercial Farmers Union Vice President Louis Fick confirmed members of his organization have asked the tribunal to take enforcement action and will refer the matter to SADC as a whole. The next SADC summit is likely to be held in August or September of this year in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which currently holds the rotating SADC chairmanship.
Spokesman Nickson Mau of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition's Johannesburg office told VOA Studio 7 reporter Patience Rusere that putting the matter to the SADC summit will mainly be for the record as it is not likely to give the white farmers satisfaction.
