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Published in: Legalbrief Africa
Date: Tue 24 May 2011
Category: South Africa
Issue No: 431
Crawford von Abo has reached the end of the road in his bid for compensation from the SA Government for the expropriation of his farms in Zimbabwe.
According to a Beeld report, Von Abo approached the Constitutional Court after the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) found that although the government had acted in an unconstitutional manner in its diplomatic assistance to Von Abo, SA law does not recognise a principle where one government may be held accountable for the actions of another. The North Gauteng High Court initially ordered the government to compensate Von Abo due to its failure to provide diplomatic assistance. According to the report, Von Abo argued in his Constitutional Court application that the SCA judgment itself was unconstitutional as the court could not find unconstitutional conduct with purely 'theoretical value'. The report says the government also appealed to Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo, arguing that the SCA erred in finding that it acted in an unconstitutional manner towards Von Abo. However, both applications were unanimously dismissed as having no reasonable prospect of success.
Full Beeld report
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