South African Constitutional Court ruling regarding the 2008 SADC Tribunal judgement in favor of Zimbabwe farmers.

In 2008 a group of Zimbabwe Farmers succeeded in winning a judgement for recovery of damages for the loss of their farms against the Zimbabwe Government. The judgement was rendered by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal. That judgement had to be enforced by a court. The court that the Farmers requested to enforce the judgement was the North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria (High Court). The High Court ordered the payment of the judgement through attachment of Zimbabwe property in South Africa.

Zimbabwe appealed this decision. This month the Constitutional Court of South Africa, in a majority opinion written by Chief Justice Mogoeng, agreed with the lower court's decision to attach Zimbabwe property located in South Africa. The Court stated that it had extended the common law on enforcement of foreign judgments to include SADC Tribunal rulings. Additionally, the Chief Justice stated that the SADC Tribunal was established for this purpose, to allow citizens of SADC member states to seek redress for acts by those states.    

Further notes:
The SADC Tribunal was suspended in 2010 and reorganized in terms of purpose in 2012. Additionally, several properties owned by Zimbabwe in SA have been given diplomatic immunity and so cannot be attached in order to satisfy the judgement. One property was not able to be given such immunity and was attached in execution of the debt for the judgement.
    

New Financial Instruments East Africa

East Africa is developing new financial instruments to trade on their exchanges. According to Bloomberg,  the Nairobi Stock Exchange is acquiring regulatory approval for REITS and other futures instruments as well as Exchange Traded funds (ETF).

This is a brave new world for East Africa and new regulatory advances will follow. Institutional investors will be very interested to see firm investor protections in place to support investment in these new areas. In addition, dispute resolution processes available for potential conflict would be hugely beneficial for exchanges to continue to develop.   

Obama's trip to Africa has raised the stakes for new financial innovation on the continent!

Central African Stock Exchange Handbook 2013

The CASE Handbook 2013 is currently having it's book launches in Zimbabwe and Malawi. After that, the 2013 book will be available. Please check out the website for pdf availability!!

This was an interesting year for African Stock Exchanges and continues to be a fascinating year for Central
Africa! This book is a must have guide for investment in the region.