HARARE - Zimbabwe's Supreme court has ruled that the government may acquire agricultural equipment seized from white- owned farms, clearing the way for tractors and other machinery to be moved from warehouses.

HARARE - Zimbabwe's Supreme court has ruled that the government may acquire agricultural equipment seized from white- owned farms, clearing the way for tractors and other machinery to be moved from warehouses.

Some white farmers had stored their machinery at sites around the country while they legally challenged the government's right to take the equipment as part of its land redistribution policy.

The court ruled that the Acquisition of Farm Equipment (or) Material Act was not unconstitutional because it benefited the public.

"I am satisfied that the compulsory acquisition in terms of the Act is for a purpose beneficial to the public generally or to a section of the public," Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, sitting with four other senior judges, said in the ruling. - Reuters