It was the first time in legal history that a group of heads of state was cited by individuals as the respondent in an application to an international body. The Tribunal was suspended in 2011 by SADC leaders, who chose to hobble the work of the court rather than take action against Mugabe. This was after the Tribunal ruled against Mugabe in 2008 in an historic case that pitted dispossessed Zim commercial farmers against the now 90 year old despot. The human rights court ruled that Mugabe’s land grab was unlawful and inherently racist, a ruling that ZANU PF and its leader actively ignored.

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