Judge ignores court order in Zimbabwe

A Zimbabwe High Court judge ignored an order by his own court barring him from moving onto a farm confiscated from a white family, the owner of the disputed land said today.

According to the white farmer, Vernon Nicole, Judge Ben Hlatshwayo told him he was allocated the land by the government under its land reform programme encouraging commercial farming by blacks.

The controversial scheme, which the government says is a tool to correct colonial era injustices by giving farms to poor, landless blacks, has come under fire for giving many of the prime farms instead to confidantes of President Robert Mugabe.