- Zimbabwean government has rejected a ruling by regional court in Namibia to halt the land seizure programme from white farmers, land minister said.
On Friday, the Southern African Development Community tribunal ruled that 78 white Zimbabweans should keep their farms as they were discriminated against when their land was seized under the ambitious President Robert Mugabe's land reform programme since 2000 which led to Zimbabwe's economic collapse.
State owned newspaper, Herald reported lands minister Didymus Mutasa saying the government will instead accelerate efforts to seize farms from the remaining white farmers and give it to black subsistence farmers.
"They are daydreaming because we are not going to reverse the land reform exercise," the Minister reportedly said.
The court said Zimbabwe had violated its treaty obligations by failing to compensate three plaintiffs who had lost their farms, and ordered the government to take all measures to protect the possessions and ownership of the others.
The ruling dealt a big blow to President Mugabe who never expected such a ruling from his peers, having been so lenient in resolving the long dragging political crisis.
Reports said less than 300 white farmers, out of around 4,000 originally, are left in Zimbabwe, the vast majority of them reduced to farming only small portions of their original landholdings.
White farmers in Zimbabwe were set on chase when the country made an attempt to implement its land reform policy by redistributing farms to its black and landless majority.
Since the government began to take majority of white-owned land, agriculture which was the base of Zimbabwe's economy, tumbled down. The country now has hyperinflation of over 230 million percent.
afrol News - It is called "financial inclusion", and it is a key government policy in Rwanda. The goal is that, by 2020, 90 percent of the population is to have and actively use bank accounts. And in only four years, financial inclusion has doubled in Rwanda.
afrol News - The UN's humanitarian agencies now warn about a devastating famine in Sudan and especially in South Sudan, where the situation is said to be "imploding". Relief officials are appealing to donors to urgently fund life-saving activities in the two countries.
afrol News - Fear is spreading all over West Africa after the health ministry in Guinea confirmed the first Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa. According to official numbers, at least 86 are infected and 59 are dead as a result of this very contagious disease.
afrol News - It is already a crime being homosexual in Ethiopia, but parliament is now making sure the anti-gay laws will be applied in practical life. No pardoning of gays will be allowed in future, but activist fear this only is a signal of further repression being prepared.
afrol News / Africa Renewal - Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries.
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