Oct.12 (GMM) Formula 1 will need to scratch Zimbabwe off the list of potential hosts of an African GP.
With organisers in Kyalami unable to reach a 2023 race deal with the sport for financial reasons, attention had turned to Zimbabwe – as a $1.2 billion circuit project near the famous Victoria Falls was underway.
However, the country’s supreme court has ordered that construction come to a halt due to the objections of local residents, according to Zimlive.
Tass, a Russian news agency, says the project was being headed by a Dubai consortium whose lease of 500 hectares of land was nullified by the court.
The judge ruled in favour of 100 villagers who argued that they were being displaced from their ancestral lands.
Justice Evangelista Kabasa said that while the organisers were justified in seeking to develop the local lands, “the manner in which they went about it was unlawful”.