Zimbabwe – Government supervised Looting

Original Post Date: 2001-08-28  Posted By: Jan

From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 8/28/2001 4:50:49 AM
Zimbabwe – Government supervised Looting

This is a summary transcript from the Carte Blanche show on South African TV
26/08/2001 Les Aupiais.

[This is a summary. The full transcript will be published Tuesday 13h00]

On Friday the 10th of August Tertia and Charl Geldenhuys™ farm and home were

invaded by a group of about 70 men.

Over the last two weeks over 50 white families in Zimbabwe fled their homes
as gangs entered their farms, threatened their lives and looted and
vandalised their properties.

Almost a billion Zimbabwean dollars worth of property was destroyed or
stolen. Police did little to protect lives and property. Few who witnessed
the violence believe that these were random acts of violence.

Roy is a member of parliament of the opposition party, the MDC. He believes
that the government is behind the recent spate of violence. It is part of
their strategy in the build up to next years™ crucial presidential elections.

If next year(96)`s elections are free and fair many people believe that President

Robert Mugabe will be voted out. But it seems that he and his ministers will

go to any lengths to prevent that from happening.

Charl is the manager Two Treehill Farm about 30 kilometres outside Chinhoyi.

It was very early on Friday morning when he and his wife Tertia, their
six-month old baby son and their young daughter were woken by the sounds of
chanting at the gate of their house.

Charl immediately radioed the owner of the farm Les de Jager.

It would take nine hours for the police to arrive. Until then the terrified
family could only wait and watch.

Charl managed to take photographs of the looters. Using the farm tractors
they carted off load after load of fertilizer, seeds and equipment. As the
day progressed the number of looters grew.

The looting continued unabated. Finally, at three o™clock the police arrived,

but they didn™t come alone.

Their relief at being rescued by the police and senior members of the
government soon turned to utter disbelief.

Sitting on the pile of looted fertilizer bags was the Minister of Local
government, Ignatious Chombo. With him were the Provincial Governor, Peter
Chanetsa, and Chinhoyi Member of Parliament Philip Chiyangwa.

Phillip Chiyangwa opened the so-called meeting. He accused Charl of shooting

his own dog.

The minister was being followed by newspaper reporters. Over the next few
days white farmers would be accused by the state-owned press of instigating
the violence and looting in order to create an impression of lawlessness in
the country.

While Chombo and his colleagues berated the couple, the looting carried on
unabated.

But this didn™t seem to disturb the minister and his colleagues.

Before he left the minister instructed the police to confiscate Charl™s
weapons and ammunition.

The couple left that night for South Africa. It was three days before it was

safe enough for the owner Les de Jager to get into Two Treehill Farm. When he

did, he found utter devastation.

But financially the biggest loss to Les was the farm equipment.

Apart from other farm equipment three combine harvesters worth about 60
million Zimbabwe dollars each were vandalised.

Les produces about two and a half thousand hectares of wheat every season –
roughly five percent of the country™s wheat crop.

The Zimbabwean economy has been in a freefall for the past eighteen months.
Unemployment is at 60 percent. As the value of the dollar plummets, costs
have spiralled. This year the wheat crop – if the government allows it to be

harvested – will be been less than half of last year™s crop. The price of
bread has doubled in the last six months to 40 dollars a loaf.

This is all part of Robert Mugabe™s land reform initiative. The government
has given notice that they intend to move most of the white farmers off the
commercial farmland in October. Many of the farms have already been
subdivided into small plots.

In last year™s parliamentary election Roy was voted in as the MP for the
Chimanimani District. The overwhelming majority of his constituency are black

Zimbabweans.

The vast majority of the voters live in the countryside- many of them are
farm workers. These two men worked on a farm that has been invaded, looted
and abandoned. For their own safety we will keep their identities hidden.

In a few week™s time The Mokoni Disrict will be holding a by-election. Makoni

is about a three hour drive south of Harare. Most of the inhabitants here are

subsistence farmers. Rural areas have traditionally been Zanu-PF
strongholds.

James Mukwaya is the campaign manager for the MDC. According to human rights

organisations, nineteen thousand people were attacked and tortured and 34
people killed in last year(96)`s parliamentary elections.

Douglas Chapoterera is the chairman of the MDC in the Makoni district. Last
Thursday night his house and its contents were burnt to the ground.

Douglas knew that if he stayed he would die. He managed to scare away his
attackers by throwing rocks at them. Then he ran for his life. The attackers

ransacked the house, stealing any valuables they could find including a
radio, Douglas™s bicycle and twenty thousand dollars. When they were
finished, they set fire to the house.

Douglas now sleeps in a different house every night. He says that until the
by-election is over he will not feel safe. James claims that similar abuses
are taking place on a daily basis.

Teria Kuwanda, her children and husband and neighbour Philamon Sharara were
kidnapped, assaulted and held captive.

As next year(96)`s presidential elections draw nearer, opposition supporters
expect the violence to escalate. But James believes that it will only harden

the peoples™ attitude against President Robert Mugabe.

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