Amendment to land reform law closes loopholes

Zimbabwe's parliament has passed an amendment to the country's land reform law to close loopholes previously used by white farmers to challenge eviction orders. Last month, farmer Andy Kockott successfully launched a precedent-setting court challenge to his eviction on the grounds that his bank, which holds his bond, had not been informed of his pending eviction, as required by law. This meant the government had to notify the banks of farmers affected in this way, then reissue eviction notices. The government-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Thursday that Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa acknowledged the bondholding banks should have been informed of the intention to evict farmers. He said it was a mistake which came to light through Kockott's challenge. Under the amendment passed on Wednesday, the government's failure to notify bondholders would not render eviction notices invalid. Bondholders would, however, receive the notices and would have 30 days to react to the eviction order. The Land Acquisition Bill also said that reissued eviction notices would only give farmers seven days' notice to leave if their previous order had already expired. If the order had not expired, the notice period would be remainder of the unexpired order. The bill has to be signed into law by President Robert Mugabe. Jenni Williams, spokeswoman for Justice for Agriculture (JAG), which advocates challenging evictions through the courts, told IRIN she considered the new bill a victory, because the test case had made the government accountable for its own laws. The next step, she said, was to challenge the evictions on the basis of constitutional infringements. Under the "fast-track" resettlement programme, 2,900 commercial farmers have been ordered to leave their properties, which would be redistrubuted to landless cultivators.