Mugabe's land reform programme gets green light

The Supreme Court in Harare on Tuesday gave President Robert Mugabe and his government the go-ahead to proceed with its controversial land reform programme, news reports said. The Supreme Court in November had declared the land reform scheme unconstitutional and ordered a halt to the programme.

On Tuesday, a bench dominated by new appointees, most of whom are loyal supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF party, said in a two-page ruling that administrative courts could resume processing the government's requests to acquire farms. The interim ruling, reports said, made no mention of the court's earlier order that police evict the occupiers who began forcibly invading white-owned farms in February 2000.

The legal advocate for Zimbabwe's white farmers was quoted as saying that the ruling was an "unprecedented" order that cast doubt on the independence of the nation's judiciary. "I believe we no longer have an independent judiciary," Adrian de Bourbon told reporters after the ruling.

Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered in a Bulawayo stadium on Monday to mark the second anniversary of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), BBC reported. The leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, was quoted as telling the crowd that 300,000 people had lost their jobs over the past two years and accused President Robert Mugabe of plunging the country into economic and social chaos. Tsvangirai also accused the government of plotting to split his party. He was quoted as saying that such plots would not succeed and that he would easily win the forthcoming presidential elections next year.