Smith leads revolt of white farmers

Original Post Date: 2002-07-10  Posted By: Jan

From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 7/10/2002 2:02:39 PM
Smith leads revolt of white farmers

THE former prime minister of Zimbabwe, Ian Smith, is to lead a revolt against President Robert Mugabe’s order to 2,900 white farmers to stop growing food immediately and leave their farms by mid-August in a country where 6m people are threatened with famine. “I’m going down to my farm this weekend and we’ll be producing food flat out,” said Smith, 83. “There are millions of starving Zimbabweans who desperately need the food we produce. We have to stand up firmly and say in a loud, clear voice that we will absolutely not put up with this madness.” Smith, who farms in Gweru, central Zimbabwe, is prepared to defy the government even if it means violence. The state broadcasting company announced last week that troops would be used to evict the farmers, many of whom have become used to attacks by war veterans. “I’ll face the music,” Smith said. “We’ve got some war vets on my farm but we stood up to them and we just ignore them. Very often if you stand up to people they back down. The people of Zimbabwe don’t want the farms closed down. They want to feed their families. They’re waiting for a lead and we’ll give it.” The current round of evictions marks the latest development in a campaign by Mugabe against 4,000 white farmers that began with the first wave of assaults by the war veterans two years ago, Section 8 orders sent out on May 10 gave 2,900 farmers – the majority of those still working the land – 45 days to stop farming and another 45 to leave. Most white farmers share Smith’s anger but few are prepared to speak out. The Commercial Farmers’ Union appears to be seeking a compromise with authorities amid signs of confusion among officials over how the rules should be applied. Jenni Williams, the union’s spokeswoman, said district administrators had sent out conflicting
signals. “Many have told farmers who stopped farming in accordance with
the law that they should go on, so quite a few have done exactly that,”
she said. “Others tell farmers they must stop operations forthwith.” Jim Sinclair, a farmer in his sixties who has been driven off his farm near
Norton, 50 miles southwest of Harare, has experienced the chaos at first hand. “Legally any order telling you to stop farming has to be confirmed by the courts but everyone’s given up on them,” he said. “The real drama is not about 2,900 people. All told 2 million people are living on white farms and the government seems to expect them all to leave, too. They have
nowhere to go and once those farms close they have no jobs and no food.
Nobody in government seems to care. They show a complete lack of concern about the famine.” Sinclair’s son David and daughter-in-law Sarah, who
are in their thirties, have explored possibilities in Britain. Others
are looking to neighbouring countries in Africa, and as far away as
Australia and New Zealand. This is frequently the pattern: the older
established farmers stay put while the sons go. “You have to be young to do what these guys are doing,” said one farmer. South Africa has tried
to persuade Mugabe to tone down his policy. Essop Pahad, a senior minister in the cabinet of Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, declined in an interview to criticise Mugabe’s tactics directly, but said his government had tackled its own land problem differently “to find a way white farmers can work more closely with emerging African farmers”. Mbeki, Pahad noted, had been “the only head of state to say in the presence of Mugabe that there are quite clearly other ways” of redistributing land. While Zimbabwe intensifies pressure on its farmers, the threat of famine grows. Statistics from the World Food Programme (WFP) show that winter maize is in such short supply that a bull can be traded for just 160kg of the staple food, a fifth of the amount of a year ago. The average family needs 1,200kg of maize a year to survive. To map the extent of the crisis, the WFP has divided the population into three groups: the rich, with resources to get through a whole year; the average, who can feed themselves until January; and the poor, whose food will run out by the end of August. In Hwange, in the west, 60% fall into the third category. “There are going to be vast movements of population,” said Tim Neil, an Anglican clergyman working for famine relief. “People will go wherever there are rumours of food. Already the WFP has found women who walked four days to collect 20kg of food.” During a recent appearance at a conference of the Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, Mugabe, 78, blamed British colonialism for the famine. “He’s old and tired,” said Isaac Maposa, the chief executive of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Maposa said that even before presidential elections last March, cabinet meetings were being chaired by his designated successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the former head of Zimbabwe’s secret police. Additional reporting: Tom Walker

Source: Sunday Times
Issue Date: Sunday June 30, 2002
Byline: RW Johnson Johannesburg