Zim must pay Dutch farmers

Johannesburg - The Mugabe government has once again been berated by an international institution over the expropriation of farms in Zimbabwe - but this is likely to have little practical effect.

In Washington, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) determined that the 2003 expropriation of farms belonging to Dutch citizens was illegal. It directed the Mugabe government to pay up €8.2m (about R92.5m) plus interest.

The ICSID is a World Bank institution providing facilities for settlement of disputes based on arbitration.

Thirteen Dutch citizens submitted a claim to the ICSID after being initially unable to sell their farms in terms of the Zimbabwean government's land-reform policy. This was followed by illegal seizure of their farms by war veterans. In the process little or no protection was received from the police.

The Dutch had various land and farming interests in Zimbabwe. The farmers explained that their interests were protected by a 1996 bilateral investment agreement between Zimbabwe and the Netherlands.

The Zimbabwean government in defence stated that the Lancaster House agreement had provided for changes in the pattern of land ownership over a period of 10 years from 1980. Little progress in this respect had been made in the time.

The farm invasions were a "spontaneous reaction by the landless people of Zimbabwe". They had not in any way been provoked by the government. With the limited means at their disposal the police had done their best to stop the invasions.

That the 13 farmers were unfairly treated is denied.

On behalf of the ICSID, Judge Gilbert Guillaume declared in his ruling that farmers' estimates of the value of their farms has been overstated. They were, however, entitled to compensation of more or less their own valuations.

The Zimbabwean government was found to have breached the bilateral agreement with The Netherlands. Zimbabwe was further ordered to pay the $225 000 (about R1.8m) costs of the hearing.

The latest ruling against the Zimbabwean government follows the declaration at the end of last year by a Southern African Development Community tribunal in Windhoek that the Zimbabwean government had violated regional agreements providing for land ownership, when the government had been ordered to compensate 77 farmers. The Zimbabwean government made it clear that it did not consider itself bound by the decision.

- Sake24

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