2. The second pillar is court judgments in international law.

 

• The Campbell case judgment by the SADC Tribunal in December 2008 established that what was happening under the guise of ‘land reform’ was racist and illegal, and that just compensation needed to take place.

• The subsequent registration of our judgment in South Africa in August 2013 has solidified that pillar.

• After the SADC Tribunal was closed down in 2011, we applied to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights for an order that would ensure the SADC Tribunal would continue to function so we could set compensation.

• Our next move will be to the United Nations so that our claims for compensation and restitution are established there.

• Meanwhile the Dutch farmers’ case has set a precedent in terms of what fair compensation for the illegalities actually means. With Zimbabwe having been found to have broken the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) with the Dutch, the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) made its award through an arm of the World Bank. This award continues to accrue interest.

• In addition, Heinrich von Pezold, a German farmer whose timber estate was seized, is suing the Zimbabwe government for US$600 million in a more comprehensive claim through the ICSID.

• We have also initiated a “crimes against humanity” case in South Africa for what has happened to farmers and their workers on Zimbabwean farms and this is being taken further. According to a decision by South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal on 27 November 2013, the South African Police Service has a legal obligation to investigate crimes against humanity if the perpetrators visit South Africa, regardless of where they took place. The affidavits and evidence gathered relate to people resident on Zimbabwean commercial farms that were specifically protected by an international court order issued by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal in 2008. 

 

3. THE THIRD PILLAR is there to give balance and completeness to the whole process and it this that we wish to deal with here.

 

All of us who have been forced off our farms have been frustrated and sometimes hurt at the lack of understanding of what we have been through. It is only in telling our stories that there will be a greater public understanding and awareness of the injustice that occurred in the dispossession of our homes and livelihoods. Our stories are very powerful tools - and collectively they will all help to build pressure for a just settlement.

 

In monetary terms, our stories also have a very significant value in law, known as “pain and suffering” or even “severe pain and suffering”, which is otherwise defined as “torture.”

 

THE HOLOCAUST EXAMPLE:

 

One of the activities that the persecuted Jews undertook during the terrible trauma of the Holocaust during the Nazi era in Europe was to document what was happening to them. Diaries were kept. Pictures were taken. Crimes were recorded. Milk churns were hidden under the ground in the ghettos, filled with evidence of the injustices taking place.

 

At the time of the liberation of Europe, pictures were taken of the concentration camps. Books began to be written. Films began to be made. Museums began to be set up. In this way, truth and justice were set to take their course because public awareness was now so heightened.  Within 4 years of the end of the Holocaust, the Nuremburg trials had taken place and the Jews finally had a country recognized – something they had not had for nearly 2,000 years.

 

DOCUMENTING THE TRAUMA FOR THE THIRD PILLAR:

 

We need to learn from the history of the way the Holocaust story was told and revisit the events that forced us away from our homes and livelihoods.

 

As victims, this is something proactive that we can each do to make a difference for a better future.

We want to help you tell your story as best you can, in a human way, for your own future and that of the next generation. Very sadly, some vital stories have already begun to fade away with their owners.

 

Your story is foundational for the future because policy makers, academics, historians, researchers, writers, lawyers and the general public all need to know the truth of our stories, so that pressure continues to build for a just settlement to at last take place.

 

PLEASE NOTE:  If you are prepared to write your story, but do not want it published on the website, then we would still like you to submit it to us for documentation purposes – and we can assist you in this regard.

 

The future cannot be secure or balanced unless the past can be dealt effectively and conclusively. Like the three-legged potjie pot on the camp fire, we need the third pillar to ensure success in this lengthy and frustrating process – so that the pot doesn’t fall over and its contents is spilt.

 

Some farmers say: “My story is not important.” They are wrong. We ask you to log in below and complete the questionnaire so that we can help facilitate the telling of your story. The world must know....

 

Yours sincerely

 

Ben Freeth

Spokesperson SADC Tribunal Rights Watch and Executive Director of Mike Campbell Foundation.