admin
von Abo for farms he lost in Zimbabwe, that country’s African Supreme Court has ruled.
Mr von Abo owned 11 farms in Zimbabwe that were legally acquired for redistribution to the landless black majority.
The farmer then accused the South African government of failing to offer him diplomatic protection.
Mr von Abo successfully sued the South African government at the High Court in Gauteng.
His joy was short-lived as the Supreme Court of appeals quashed the lower court’s decision saying Mr von Abo’s request for diplomatic protection was inappropriate.
Justice Suretta Snyders ruled that legally, the South African government could not be held accountable for another government’s actions.
In reaching her decision over the matter, Justice Snyders said legal principles applicable in the matter were authoritatively pronounced upon by the Constitutional Court in the matter of the 69 mercenaries arrested in Zimbabwe on their way to Equatorial Guinea a few years ago.
In that case, she said, the court recognised that South African citizens were entitled to ask their government for protection against the wrongful acts of a foreign country.
“It found that the decision on how and when to help the citizens was essentially the function of the executive,” she said.
She said the High Court order ignored the fact that diplomatic protection was a process in which the result was necessarily dependent on the responses of another State, which was not bound by the order.
The ruling comes after some former white commercial farmers in South Africa threatened to attach properties belonging to the Zimbabwe Government in that country.
This was after the contested Sadc Tribunal tried to reverse the land reform programme.
Zimbabwe’s High Court refused to register the ruling, saying it was against the national interest and the Supreme Court subsequently made it clear such court challenges could not be entertained.
Online Reporter