Today the Pretoria High Court handed down judgement in the prolonged court application against former South African President, Jacob Zuma, and his government for their role in the closure of the regional human rights court, the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) Tribunal in 2012.
The application was launched in April 2015 by The Law Society of South Africa to declare the actions of former President Zuma, as well as those of the Minister of Justice, Michael Masutha, and the Minister of International Relations and Co-operation, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, unconstitutional in relation to the SADC 2014 Protocol.
The civil rights watch dog AfriForum successfully assisted four Zimbabwean farmers and two agricultural companies to intervene in this case. The farmers lost their properties as part of Zimbabwe’s land reform policies. They successfully approached the SADC Tribunal in 2008 to protect their property rights, but the Tribunal was eventually suspended and thereafter left to silently dissolve.
The court ruled that the former president’s participation in the process to dismantle the SADC tribunal was unlawful, irrational and therefore unconstitutional. The president must also bear the legal costs of all the applicants.
In response to today’s judgement, Willie Spies (AfriForum’s legal representative) expressed his satisfaction with the outcome. He said that it is important that the 277 million citizens of the SADC region understand the role of regional tribunals and their critical importance in protecting the rights of all citizens. “When individual citizens, civil society groups and activists are denied access to justice in their own countries, they must be able to challenge decisions that may have an impact on democracy and their human rights through a higher court of arbitration,” he explained.