Johannesburg - Zanu-PF's "land grab" in Zimbabwe should form part of an agreement on the protection of investments to be signed with South Africa in Harare next week, Agri-SA said on Thursday.

It has urged the South African government not to buckle under pressure" from Zimbabwe to exclude the land reform programme from the agreement.

In a statement, Agri-SA said the content of the agreement had not yet been discussed with the South African business community.

However, business people had been invited to participate in an investment seminar on November 27, in Harare, where the agreement was to be signed.

Bilateral agreements

"Expectations are still that the agreement should only be finalised once the South African government has completed its policy review on bilateral agreements, and that the government should not buckle under pressure from the Zimbabwean government to exclude its land reform programme results from such an agreement," Agri-SA said.

Agri-SA will hold a meeting on November 25 to discuss collective action in response to reports that the South African government would sign the investment protection agreement next week.

Agri-SA and Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) invited all South Africans with farms in Zimbabwe to attend the meeting, where a forum would be set up to raise collective concerns with the South African government.

"The forum will also consider other mechanisms at its disposal to ensure that fairness and justice prevails regarding the confiscation of assets in Zimbabwe," Agri-SA said.

Unlawfully deprived

"Several hundred of South African citizens own agricultural land in Zimbabwe and, like white Zimbabwean citizens, have been wholly or partially deprived of their land and farming assets by Mugabe's Zanu-PF regime," it said.

Agri-SA said farmers had appealed to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal, which ruled that they had been unlawfully deprived of their property and that the Zimbabwean government should restore their rights or compensate them.

"There is a general view that government may not ignore court rulings of this nature when a decision is made regarding the content of a bilateral investment protection agreement with Zimbabwe."

Agri-SA said such silence would amount to retrospective approval of the Zimbabwean regime's unlawful actions, while the findings and rulings of the SADC tribunal were ignored.

"This will also render suspect the South African government's commitment to endorse legal principles and rulings of SADC institutions of which it forms part."

By SAPA