Luke Tembani’s property sold
Auctioneers have sold a tractor belonging to a pioneering indigenous commercial farmer to cover costs incurred when evicting him from his Nyazura farm last month. Mutare Deputy Sheriff Mark Dzobo ordered the auctioning of Tembani’s tractor, a Renault Agriculture 335 type M10 model to recover eviction costs incurred whilst effecting the eviction of the black farmer from his Remainder of Minverwag Farm at Clare Estate Ranch.
Tembani was evicted from the farm despite enjoying legal protection from a regional court. Tembani bought the tractor in 2005 through proceeds from his farm produce and has used the tractor for tillage purposes for the past four years. But Dzobo claimed the costs included those incurred by Takawira Zembe, who seized the farm from Tembani.
Tembani, who became one of the country’s first black commercial farmers shortly after independence in 1980, was evicted from a farm he bought in Nyazura, Manicaland province 26 years ago. Tembani’s eviction from a farm he has called home for nearly three decades was in defiance of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal ruling barring his eviction.
The Windhoek-based Tribunal had ruled that the repossession and sale of the farm by the State-run Agribank in order to recoup an outstanding loan was “illegal and void”.
The Tribunal ordered government to take all necessary measures through its agents not to evict Tembani or his family from the property and to stop interfering with his use and occupation of the farm.
But the government has refused to comply with the regional Tribunal’s order.
Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa unilaterally pulled Zimbabwe out of the SADC Tribunal, a decision which was refuted by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. undue delay and in a manner consistent with the provisions of the GPA.’
This story was extracted from Edition 19 of The Legal Monitor. Available to download here in pdf format. This follows on from an earlier post about Tembani last week.
November 5th, 2009 06:40
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak out for me.
November 7th, 2009 11:45
Yeah, that’s about where they’re up to now. Soon you won’t be safe even as a died-in-the-wool Zanu-PF comrade if you are in the way of another’s ambitions.
November 10th, 2009 14:51
Yeah, that’s about where they’re up to now. Soon you won’t be safe even as a died-in-the-wool Zanu-PF comrade if you are in the way of another’s ambitions.thanks for sharing.