Action Alert Update: Cattle violating eviction orders…?

This is a further update on our action alerts from yesterday and the day before.

Gary Godfrey and Chris Jarret were taken to court this morning and the prosecutor attempted to charge them with violating eviction orders. However, the prosecutor was then forced to admit that neither farmer had set foot on the farms in question for six years.

When the prosecutor then accused Jarret of his cattle still being in residence on his Mat North farm, Jarret declared he was never allowed to remove them and that the prosecutor should just arrest the cattle!

Needless to say both farmers have been released without charge. We are yet to confirm what happened in the Harare courts this morning, but suspect the same verdict.

For many of us, life in Zimbabwe has often felt farcical and bizarre, but today’s court proceedings really take the cake! If only Gary Larson could have attended, they’d have been a complete gift to his anthropomorphic take on the world through his Far Side cartoons! Cows violating court orders..! What will those pesky cows get up to next?

We also received this press release on the arrests and releases:

Zim farmers released after night in filthy police cell

SADC Tribunal protected farmers, Chris Jarrett [61] and Gary Godfrey [40], spent the night in police custody at Donnington police station in Bulawayo.

Yesterday the police were not able to give them the charge under which they were being detained. As a result, the police had no docket to get into the magistrates’ court in Bulawayo yesterday.

Information leaked to Josphat Tshuma, President of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, indicated that anyone who had been part of the SADC Tribunal action was due to be arrested and detained.

A police action in Matabeleland North headed by Chief Superintendant Matsika sought to try to arrest anyone who had been part of this legal case with Mike Campbell of Mount Carmel farm, Chegutu.

Chris Jarrett, Vice President of the Southern African Commercial Farmers Alliance [SACFA], has not been able to live in his house or farm his farm for six years. The SADC Tribunal has ordered that he should be paid compensation by the Zimbabwe Government for the takeover of his farm, Riverbank. As yet no moves have been made by the Zimbabwe government to do so.

Jarrett and Godfrey spent the night in a cell just 2.5 metres by 3.5 metres. They were with five other people. There was a blocked toilet in the corner and they report that conditions are highly conducive to the spread of cholera. Already there have been over 60,000 cases of cholera in Zimbabwe with over 3,000 dying from this disease.

Today they were taken to Treadgold, the Magistrate Court in Bulawayo. The prosecutor found that the police had still not found any law under which the detainees could be charged. They have both been released from detention.

This entry was posted by Hope on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 6:52 pm. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.