[Typically Disgusting – running one of the few remaining Whites off the land. Jan]

Harare – Zimbabwe police yesterday ordered white farmer, Louis Firk, to vacate his 400 hectare farm near the town of Chinhoyi in Mashonaland West province to pave wave for a relative of President Robert Mugabe™s wife, Grace. Armed police first visited Firk™s Fridawill farm, about 31 km north of Chinhoyi, and were back again yesterday to tell him he should surrender the property to Michael Bimha, who is believed to be a cousin to Grace. Firk could not be reached for comment yesterday but some workers at the farm indicated he was “busy running around trying to get a court order” to stop the eviction. Bimha, who is a member of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe board and is also president of the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe (EMCOZ), told Zim Online he applied for land from the government “like anyone else” and was offered Firk™s farm. But Bimha, who is said to own another property, Dumpsell Farm in Banket also near Chinhoyi, insisted he was not behind attempts by the police yesterday to force Firk to immediately surrender his property. Bimha, who said he gave up Dumpsell farm before re-applying for land to government, said: “I have nothing to do with what is going on at the farm (Fridawill Farm) at the moment. I applied for land like anyone else and I was given an offer letter after I surrendered Dumpsell Farm and I have even negotiated with the farm owner (Firk) through his lawyers to buy the equipment on the farm. So there is no way I could be said to have invaded that farm.”

But workers at Fridawill farm said Bimha has for several months now stationed security guards from a security firm called Track Inn, which is owned by the wife of Local Government Minister, Ignatius Chombo “ a move they said appeared to have been designed to intimidate the white owner to leave. And yesterday, police were physically removing some of Firk™s furniture from the farmhouse as pressure mounted on the embattled white farmer to surrender the farm. Firk, among about 500 white farmers remaining in Zimbabwe, had in the last five years survived farm invasions by villagers from nearby communal lands who spared his farm because they depended on it for seasonal employment and food during years of drought. The white farmer had also reportedly helped bankroll Zanu PF functions in Mashonaland West offering beasts to be slaughtered to feed guests during party functions, according to witnesses. One of the biggest livestock farms in the province, Fridawill boasts of 12 000 crocodiles, 3 000 pigs and 2 000 head of cattle among its stock. An abattoir at the farm slaughters an average of 50 beasts and pigs daily for supplies to butcheries and supermarket chains in Chinhoyi and around the country.

Powerful officials of Mugabe™s ruling Zanu PF party and their relatives have continued to evict the few remaining white farmers long after the government said it had completed its farm seizure programme. Earlier this month, Mugabe had to intervene and order Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga off Chigwell Farm, where he had evicted white farmer, Tom Beattie. Beattie is regarded as a friend of Mugabe, who helped bankroll the ageing leader™s wedding to Grace nine years ago, besides regularly helping sponsor Zanu PF party functions. Mugabe has in the last five years seized land from Zimbabwe™s about 4 000 white commercial farmers and parcelled it out to landless blacks in a campaign he said was necessary to correct an unfair land tenure system under which the minority whites owned 75 percent of the best arable land while blacks were cramped on poor soils. But top officials of his government and Zanu PF party kept most of the best farms seized from whites while villagers resettled on the former white land were not given skills training and financial support to maintain production, a situation which saw farm output dropping by about 60 percent. Zimbabwe has virtually survived on food handouts since Mugabe™s land seizures and this year four million or a quarter of the country™s population could starve unless the World Food Programme and other donors chip in with 1.2 million tonnes in food aid.

From Zim Online (SA), 23 June
Source: WWW.ZwNews.Com