Court reverses takeover of Bippa farm

A SENIOR army official, who attempted to grab a farm belonging to an Irish farmer using a peace order, has lost the case after a Mutare magistrate dismissed his application early this month.

Major Elvis Nyahoda grabbed Irishman Sam Case's farm in the Mutasa district of Manicaland last year.  Case's wife, who is not mentioned in the court papers, is said to be originally from Germany.

Nyahoda was issued with an offer letter for 59 hectares of the land after the farm was gazetted for acquisition in 2016 despite the farm being protected under  the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (Bippa), an agreement between Germany and Zimbabwe to protect foreign investments.

In his bid to take over the farm, Nyahoda filed a peace order application at the Mutare magistrate's court.

Case was represented by lawyer Kelvin Kabaya who argued that Nyahoda was using the wrong procedure in his attempt to evict the Irishman from the farm.

In a ruling seen by NewsDay dated March 4, 2022, a Mutare magistrate only referred to as P Gumbo said:  "After reading the documents filed on record and hearing submissions by both parties, the application for a peace order be, and is hereby dismissed.

"The court will uphold the point in limine raised by the respondent that the applicant used the wrong procedure; the application is defective and is misplaced.

"There is nothing to support the application for a peace order as there are no averments illustrating exactly what it is that the respondent did that breached the applicant's peace.

"What the applicant has done is an application for a peace order which is clothed as an application for eviction, which requirements for that application are different.

"Applicant is advised to seek legal advice on the appropriate remedies available to him. Application is dismissed with costs," Gumbo ruled.