End of an era: farmers face eviction

Original Post Date: 2002-08-08  Posted By: Jan

From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 8/8/2002 2:46:17 PM
End of an era: farmers face eviction

Nearly 3,000 Zimbabwean white farmers face eviction at midnight tonight, the government’s deadline for them to leave their properties, as a 12-year land seizure battle reaches its bitter climax. Many of the farmers affected remained on their land yesterday, despite the threat of a two-year prison sentence for defying the eviction order. “At least 70% are staying put to see what the government does,” said Jenny Williams, a spokeswoman for the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU). “Some are going to take a long weekend in Harare, but not many are actually leaving.” With President Robert Mugabe on business in Singapore, his ministers refused to comment on the imminent eviction orders. But Zimbabwe’s state radio quoted Mr Mugabe as saying: “The fast-track resettlement programme is now over and the government is now concentrating on making the new farmers productive.”

The CFU held emergency talks with senior government officials yesterday, in a last-ditch effort to resolve a standoff which has halved Zimbabwe’s food production this year, exacerbating already serious shortages across the country’s drought-stricken south. “We’re still hoping that we can find a solution, but it’s very difficult to know what the government’s planning. Everything’s uncertain,” Ms Williams said. Tonight’s deadline follows an amendment in May to Zimbabwe’s Land Acquisition Act, designed to resettle Mr Mugabe’s supporters on white-owned land. More than 2,900 of Zimbabwe’s 4,500 white, commercial farmers were then given 45 days to stop production, and another 45 days to leave their properties. Many of the remaining white farmers have been served with notices of eviction which fall due over the next three months. Despite the act’s guarantee of compensation, only 100 farmers served with eviction notices have so far received derisory payments from the government.

“It’s an insidious piece of legislation,” said John Worswick, an arable farmer from southern Chinoi, served with an eviction order. “But almost everyone has taken it to court and we’ve got a pretty good case – even if we’re preparing for the worst.” Most of the targeted farmers have challenged the eviction order on procedural grounds, with a test case challenging its constitutionality to be heard in October. That case, brought by George Quinnell, a tobacco farmer from Chinoi, 50 miles north of Harare, seeks to quash the amendment on the grounds that it is racist. “The government says it will start arresting us on Friday, but by law it will still have to return to the courts before it can do that,” said Mr Worswick. “If they want to take me away, they can, but it will only end up highlighting the illegality of this government.”

Local government minister Ignatius Chombo – who chairs the Mr Mugabe’s land acquisition audit committee – warned that any farmer who defied the government’s eviction orders would face the “full wrath of the law”. Mr Worswick has not produced anything on his 400-hectare (1,000-acre) farm since about 80 landless families invaded it two years ago. Of those, all but six have since drifted away from the semi-arid land, because of the extreme difficulty of growing crops without extensive irrigation. “They’ve had no support from the government, no fertiliser, no irrigation,” Mr Worswick said. “I used to produce 300 tonnes of peanuts and 500 tonnes of maize every year. All they can manage is a handful of beans. It’s a crazy, nightmare scenario, when you look around at the suffering in the country, I should be growing wheat right now.”

The UN world food programme estimates that almost half of Zimbabwe’s 12.5 million people will need feeding over the next year, with more than 600,000 people already surviving on food aid in the parched south. Around a quarter of the 2m-tonne shortfall in Zimbabwe’s food supply is a direct result of farm invasions, WFP says. “Nobody disputes that this country needs land reform,” said Richard Miller, of the Catholic aid agency Cafod, in Harare. “But the destruction of commercial farming is contributing to hunger. The problem is, you need tools and fertilisers to be able to grow food. People don’t only need land.” It’s not just an issue affecting white farmers. Human rights groups said yesterday that up to 100,000 farm workers were likely to be made homeless.

In the dry, dusty south of Zimbabwe where the drought has hit hardest, the fields are barren. Hlau Mufemi is being denied food aid, distributed by Mr Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party, because her son is an active member of the Movement for Democratic Change, the main opposition party. “How can I provide for my mother when I no longer have a job?” her son, Shoko, asked. “My house has been burnt by Zanu youths and I have my four children and my sister’s four children to care for as well. We have nowhere to live and can’t get any food. All I want is my job back so I can provide for my family.” John Makumbe, chairman of the Zimbabwe Crisis Committee, said: “It is a catastrophe. These farm workers are real people and the government is taking away their livelihoods and their homes, without giving them an alternative.”

On Tuesday 60 farmers in Mutorashanga, 60 miles north-east of Harare, gathered for an end-of-an-era group picture. About 40 of the group were planning to quit their farms by the week end. “The mood around here is generally depressed. Most of us want to stay in Africa. I want to stay, but my government doesn’t want me because of my colour,” one of the farmers said, speaking anonymously. One of the few farmers preparing yesterday to leave his 2,000-acre arable farm in Chinoi – an area particularly affected by Mr Mugabe’s land seizures because of its proximity to the president’s homeland in Mashonaland – said it was clear why there was hunger in Zimbabwe. “There should be 5,000 acres of wheat outside my door, but there’s not a tip of wheat to be seen. Instead, there are poor people sweeping the road for the odd bit of grain that falls from trucks. It’s madness,” said the farmer, who did not wish to be named.

The government claims that veterans of Zimbabwe’s independence war are at the forefront of the land invasions. But, in reality, few of the squatters took part in the struggle. “This white land isn’t for true war veterans,” said Wilfred Mahanda of the Liberators’ Platform, an association for former combatants. “It’s for politicians and their cronies – all the prime land is for the politicians.” Many white farmers in the Chinoi region did not realise that their eviction was due tonight, assuming instead that the deadline was Saturday, the day of Zimbabwe’s national liberation celebrations. “Everything’s very unclear but most people think we’ve got until Saturday,” said one farmer, who asked not to be named. “Anyway, no-one’s budging, we’re staying exactly where we are, and if they have to lock up 4,000 farmers in one day, it’s going to be a hell of a job.” This farmer did not expect to be evicted imminently either, although he said there were worrying signs. “The squatters stole a load of my machinery over the weekend but the police said they couldn’t arrest anyone because there’s no room in the jails. I wonder if that means they’re leaving room for us?”

By :James Astill in Nairobi, and Rachel Palmer in Mataga, Zimbabwe.
Source:Guardian (UK)
Published:Thu 8-Aug-2002
URL: http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID…br>

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