APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) A southern African court on Friday ruled in favour of two white Zimbabwean farmers contesting eviction orders by the government and referred the dispute over Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform programme to next month’s summit of regional leaders to be held in Namibia.

The Windhoek-based Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal ordered the Zimbabwean government not to interfere with operations at farms owned by Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) vice president Louis Fick and Michael Campbell who are challenging the legality of the government’s land reform programme.

The two farmers had appealed to the SADC tribunal after the Zimbabwean government refused to comply with a previous order granted in 2008 that allowed 78 white farmers to continue living and working on their land.

The previous ruling criticised Zimbabwe’s land reform programme on the grounds that it discriminated against a section of Zimbabwean society on the basis of race in contravention of a 1992 statute that established the 15-member SADC grouping to which the country is a party.

Tribunal judge Jamu Mutambo also referred the dispute between the farmers and the Harare government to the annual summit of SADC heads of state and government.

“We are obviously elated about the outcome of the case that was before the SADC Tribunal and now hope the regional leaders will this time seriously consider the matter,” a CFU spokesman told APA on Friday.

This is the second time the tribunal has referred the matter to SADC after regional leaders failed to discuss the issue last year.

Zimbabwe government officials, including President Robert Mugabe, have insisted that rulings by the SADC Tribunal are "null and void" and are superceded by Zimbabwean law.

Mugabe says the land reform programme is necessary to correct historical imbalances in land ownership in Zimbabwe caused by a decade of colonialism.