Civil society organisations call for reinstatement of SADC Tribunal

Civil society organisations and cultural communities are rallying for the reinstatement of the secretariat of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal.

The call comes amid concerns over the erosion of justice and human rights within the SADC countries.

The tribunal was a court and the highest policy institution of the SADC. Its mandate included ensuring “adherence to and the proper interpretation of the provisions of the SADC Treaty”.

The Mike Campbell Foundation, the Mthwakazi Republic Party, the Southern African Agri Initiative (Saai), AfriForum and the Office of Kgosi Mogakolodi Masibi of the Batlharo Boo Tokwana Ba Ga Masibi cultural community yesterday sent a memorandum to the SADC to call for the restoration of the tribunal.

Theo de Jager, executive board chair of Saai, said the initiative was to put pressure on the governments to revive this tribunal.

First in SADC’s history

De Jager said it was the first time in SADC’s history that civil society with non-political structures had launched such an effort.

“We need the international community to play its part to ensure compensation is paid to the white Zimbabwean farmers who have still not been compensated for the land which they have title deeds to and from which they were violently evicted,” he added.

The representatives signed this memorandum at the historic Turnhalle Building, Windhoek, the former seat of the tribunal, as a symbol of their appeal to SADC.

The symbolic signing was the final step of a two-stage trek undertaken by Ben Freeth, executive director of the Mike Campbell Foundation, which began at the gate of the farm Mount Carmel in central Zimbabwe on 28 November last year.

Mogakolodi Masibi, king of the Batlharo Boo Tokwana Ba Ga Masibi, said cultural communities in rural Southern Africa were in dire need of development and key to development was investment.

Masibi said human rights were important and “the so-called democracies of this world, including our country, South Africa, are expensive when it comes to justice”.

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 “We support restoration of the SADC Tribunal, as it will send a message to potential donors, investors and the international community that the governments of SADC are truly committed to the rule of law,” he added.

According to the statement, Mike Campbell and Freeth had received confirmation from the Zimbabwean government in 1999, stating it had no interest in acquiring Campbell’s farm, Mount Carmel, for its land redistribution programme.

But two years later, Campbell was issued with an eviction notice as part of the government’s programme of expropriation of land without compensation.

Campbell and Freeth took the matter to the SADC Tribunal, which ruled in their favour and found actions taken by the Zimbabwean government were in violation of the SADC’s human rights principles.

However, the Zimbabwean government ignored the ruling, and the farm was invaded in 2009.

Freeth said the court of justice was open to any SADC citizens whose justice systems had failed them in their own countries.

“The effective closure of the tribunal was a travesty of justice that has denied access to justice to the 400 million citizens of the 16 SADC countries,” Freeth said.

Ayesha Kajee, political analyst and research fellow at Afrasid, said the tribunal was effectively disbanded due to connivance between former presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Jacob Zuma of SA.

They contrived to change the protocol in 2014, to only hear interstate disputes, removing citizens’ right to bring a case.

“The importance of restoring it means giving that right to bring cases to the tribunal, back to the citizens.

“The big question is whether the tribunal would have enforcement teeth? “International solidarity is critical. We saw that in the South African fight against apartheid and we are seeing it again with Gaza,” Kajee said.

– zanelem@citizen.co.za