When Ben Freeth headed west on horseback from the derelict Mount Carmel farm near Chegutu in Zimbabwe on 28 November, he had to lay low. For about 800km, Freeth avoided roads and stuck to the bush, following game paths where he could, while scouting the drought-stricken land for water and grazing for his horse, Tsedeq.
Mugabe ignored the Tribunal’s ruling. Freeth and his family, including his children, and the Campbells, suffered increasing harassment and threats as they continued to run their farm, until their homes, and those of the farm workers, were burnt down by war veterans eight months later. Freeth’s home was burnt down on 30 August 2009, with the Campbell’s home suffering the same fate two days later.
Then in August 2014, Mugabe, along with other heads of state including Zuma, signed a new protocol limiting the Tribunal to only dealing with disputes between SADC states. SADC citizens were then prevented from accessing it to deal with human rights violations should their own government fail to follow the rule of law, as has been the case in Zimbabwe.
He said on Friday 1 March, he received a call on his Namibian cellphone number, which in itself was strange as he not given it out to anyone. “No-one knows my Namibian number,” he said. “They could only have got it from the service provider.” Spies, who is Afriforum’s legal representative and representing Zimbabwean farmers in cases before the South African courts, said litigation in South African began in 2010 after farmers realised they weren’t making any progress in the Zimbabwean courts, as these had been captured by judges loyal to Mugabe.
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