SA businessman buys Zim government property at auction

Auctioned off

CAPE TOWN – Legal history has been made in South Africa when a property owned by the Zimbabwean government was auctioned off. The Cape Town home was sold to recover legal costs incurred in SA over President Robert Mugabe’s land redistribution policy.

It’s the first time in history that a decision of a human rights tribunal in Africa leads to the sale of a property of the country that has been guilty of human rights abuses at a public auction by the sheriff.

In 2008 the Southern African Development Community’s regional court – the SADC Tribunal – in South Africa, ruled that Zimbabwe’s land redistribution was unlawful‚ racist and in contravention of applicable international law.

Afrikaner rights group Afriforum said they had started assisting Zimbebweans and activists in South Africa after Mugabe refused to comply with the order that the controversial land redistribution has to stop.

The matter was then heard in South African courts, which ordered Zimbabwe to pay costs.

These were never settled. The property was attached for the first time in 2010.

A handful of interested buyers gathered at 28 Salisbury Way in Kenilworth on Monday to bid for the property and a local businessman eventually paid just over R3.7 million for it.

“Obviously I bought it for speculation purposes. I mean they don’t pay their bond, it was on auction and I like to buy it at the right price the bank’s happy. It’s the way it goes,” said purchaser, Arthur Tsimitakopoulos.

At the last minute, the Zimbabwean government tried again to halt the sale, paying the local sheriff of the court over R800, 000 but the sheriff indicated that he had no proof of payment. – eNCA