Zimbabwe farmers to challenge squatters' stay on land

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said on Tuesday it would appeal against a High Court provisional order allowing squatters to stay on white farms they have invaded since February.

On Monday High Court judge Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku ruled that war veterans and supporters of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party could remain on the farms pending a Supreme Court ruling expected next month on the constitutionality of Mugabe's land seizure programme.

"There has been a clear violation of judiciary procedure. The High Court ruling is highly irregular and improper and we will appeal against the order tomorrow," CFU Deputy Director Malcolm Vowles told Reuters.

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Ten days ago, the Supreme Court, Zimbabwe's highest court, ordered the government to stop its illegal land-grab and to evict the squatters.

But the Supreme Court reserved judgment on the wider question of whether the whole programme, including Mugabe's decision not to pay compensation unless Britain provides the money, was unconstitutional.

Justice Chidyausiku's ruling on Monday overturned the Supreme Court's eviction order on the grounds that the Supreme Court must first hear a "class case" filed by one settler, who says he is representing all peasants moved onto white farms.

The CFU said police had since Monday been complying with the November 10 Supreme Court ruling and were evicting illegal occupants from farms in the eastern districts of Headlands and Wedza.

But elsewhere war veterans were still assaulting and threatening farmers and their workers and disrupting planting activities in a country where agriculture accounts for about 20 percent of gross domestic product.

Thousands of veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war and supporters of Mugabe have occupied more than 1,000 white farms since February. At least five farmers have been killed in violence that followed the invasions.

Mugabe has repeatedly vowed he would not heed any court order that interfered with his land redistribution programme, which he says is intended to rectify the land ownership imbalances which are a legacy of Zimbabwe's colonial past.

Mugabe's government has identified 3,041 white-owned farms for resettlement, and has so far served formal notice on about 2,000 farmers of its intention to seize their land.

Earlier this year Mugabe amended the constitution to give himself power to seize farms with no obligation to pay for land if former colonial power Britain did not provide funding.

Mugabe, in power since the former Rhodesia attained independence 20 years ago, has targeted for seizure at least five million hectares (12.4 million acres) of the 12 million hectares (30 million acres) under commercial farming.

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