Zimbabwe Court Order Allows Squatters to Remain on Farms

This nation’s High Court issued a provisional order Monday allowing squatters to stay on white farms they have invaded pending a ruling on President Robert Mugabe’s land seizure program, state television reported.

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corp. said High Court Judge Godfrey Chidyausiku’s ruling late Monday overturned an order by another court earlier this month for the government to evict the squatters.

“Justice Chidyausiku . . . ordered the minister of home affairs, the commissioner of police and all officers below them not to comply with an order directed by an earlier judgment to action evictions on occupied farms,” ZBC said.

“Justice Chidyausiku prohibited and restrained the police from carrying out the farm evictions pending the finalization of a constitutional case on the matter.”

The ZBC report said the ruling followed an application by communal farmer Samson Muriro, on behalf of all peasants occupying white farms, which sought a “just and fair land redistribution exercise.”

Thousands of veterans of Zimbabwe’s 1970s liberation war and supporters of Mugabe have occupied white farms since February.

Mugabe has repeatedly vowed he would not heed any court order that interfered with his land redistribution program, which he says is meant to correct the imbalances created by Zimbabwe’s colonial past.