Land Grab Focuses On Remaining Few Farmers

Mugabe always seems to have an alternative plan when facing trouble on the political front. He will play the land question out very publicly, and insists on selling the land acquisition idea to the people that the land was 'stolen' by the white pioneer and he is seeking to have the land returned to the 'landless blacks'.

The vast majority of the land that has been seized - and much of it through the use of violence and the killing of commercial farmers and their workers - and handed over to Mugabe's senior apologists.

And some of the land was purchased since 1980 from the Mugabe government after his administration had declared 'no interest' in the land.

And Mugabe states that the British government is responsible for the payment of any compensation in line with the Lancaster House Agreement. But Mugabe has not stood up to his side of the bargain, insofar as the land acquisition should be on a 'willing buyer - willing seller' basis.

Mugabe hasn't changed in thirty years. What agreements he signs and what he does thereafter are two totally different things.

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"Four Zimbabwean white farmers who were ordered to leave their properties within 24 hours last Tuesday have been issued with warrants of arrest by a magistrate in the southeastern farming town of Chipinge, the Commercial Framers Union (CFU) said on Thursday.

Magistrate Samuel Zuze convicted Algernon Taffs of Chirega Farm, Dawie Joubert of Stilfontein, Mike Odendaal of Hillcrest and Mike Jahme of Silverton Farm for refusing to vacate their properties and sentenced them to a US$800 fine each. He ordered that they immediately move out of their homes and vacate their farms by Wednesday evening.

But the farmers filed an urgent appeal in the High Court in Harare Wednesday evening, a move that under court procedures means the ruling of the lower court is automatically put on hold, allowing the farmers to remain on their properties until conclusion of their appeal against both conviction and sentencing.

CFU director Hendrik Olivier said: "It has just been reported that Magistrate Samuel Zuze has refused to recognise the High Court (appeal) and has issued a warrant of arrest for all the farmers who were in court on Tuesday and to whom he issued eviction orders. The first farmer to be arrested has been Mr Dawie Joubert."

Consider just what you would do in the event that you were given just 24 hours to vacate your place of residence. Consider that for these farmers, their place of residence is also their workplace and they have responsibilities to their workers and livestock.

The new 'owners' do not move in and carry on where the farmer left off - but they seize the farm equipment - which was never part of the deal - evict the workforce and do nothing with the land. That is the true essence of Mugabe's land grab.

"In terms of the eviction orders the farmers should have vacated their properties by 5pm on Wednesday.

"However, the 24-hour period given to them to vacate their homes and properties of up to 50 years proved to be an almost impossible task to complete in such a short time," Olivier said.

The mainly white CFU last has criticised the power-sharing government between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai for failing to end chaos in the farming sector.

The government has watched helplessly as members of the security forces and hardliner activists of Mugabe’s ZANU PF party intensified in recent weeks a drive to seize all land still in white hands, causing deep frustration among the farmers.

The beleaguered white farmers, in a strongly worded statement last week labelled the ongoing farm seizures a "crime against humanity" and called on the coalition government to act to end lawlessness on farms in keeping with the 2008 power-sharing agreement that gave birth to the administration."

Mugabe is a signatory to the power-sharing agreement and it promised to "restore the rule of law in the farming sector, including carrying out a land audit to weed out multiple farm owners - nearly all of them senior ZANU PF officials who have hoarded most of the best farms seized from whites.

The coalition government is yet to act to fulfil the promise to restore law and order in the key agricultural sector, while more farms - including some owned by foreigners and protected under bilateral investment protection agreements between Zimbabwe and other nations – have been seized over the past few months.

And to make matters worse, according to the CFU, police and judicial officers who are supposed to enforce the rule of law were also among the beneficiaries of the free-for-all land grab."

Mugabe has gone so far as to describe the white commercial farmers of being 'enemies of the State'. And all the while that this is happening, the agricultural sector, which used to feed the population without fail and had enough left over for export, has collapsed and the population are now reliant upon food aid.

Court orders in Zimbabwe are routinely ignored by ZANU PF and the judiciary are helpless to act, because ZANU PF place themselves in a position that is insurmountable.

And when you consider that ZANU PF lost the general election in March 2008, they really have no standing to be able to continue with their acts of destabilising the agricultural infrastructure in Zimbabwe. But, because Mugabe has managed, by highly dubious means, to remain in the office of President, he assumes that ZANU PF is still in control and will remain there.

"A Zimbabwean High Court judge has ruled that three white commercial farmers who were given 24 hours to leave their property by a magistrate in Chipinge, Manicaland province, should stay put until their cases are adjudicated.

Justice Samuel Kudya issued the order late Wednesday following the issuance of eviction orders on Tuesday by Magistrate Samuel Zuze.

Lawyer David Drury, representing the three farmers, said Kudya’s ruling gives a temporary reprieve to the farmers, although their land has been occupied by unruly crowds of hundreds believed to be ZANU PF militia members.

Drury told VOA Studio 7 reporter Gibbs Dube that although the Office of the Attorney General has 10 days to appeal the High Court order staying the lower court order, the farmers now have a legal right to stay on their land."

Ten days is a very long time in Zimbabwean politics. And I see the militants invaders being ordered to ignore the order and the invasions will continue and will probably take on a more violent nature.

"Algernon Taffs of Chirega Farm, Dawie Joubert of Stilfontein and Mike Odendaal of Hillcrest Farm were supposed to have moved out of their farms on Wednesday. Mike Jahme of Silverton Farm was ordered by the Chipinge court to vacate his farm within 30 days.

In a related development, former Commercial Farmers Union President Trevor Gifford said he and one of the farmers facing eviction now face jail because they tried to serve Zuze with the High Court order. Gifford said Zuze refused to sign the papers and accused the two of failing to obey his eviction orders.

Zuze, who could not be reached for comment, allegedly reported the matter to police in Chipinge, who charged the farmers with contempt of court."

Contempt of court? In the event that the second order allowing the farmers to remain on the land is ignored as is the ZANU PF norm, then it is the invaders that are in contempt. But that isn't about to stop Mugabe's people who are hell bent in the removal of the farmers.

"The magistrate was very upset when we served the papers and as a result farmer Joubert was immediately arrested and I was ordered by the police to report to the nearest police station," Gifford said."

Mugabe knows no law but his own - made up as he goes along - and when faced with a legal battle he just has the constitution amended retrospectively so that it would appear that he has conformed.

And whilst he will have the violent and very militant people invade farms, he continues to beg for money for the West to allow him to rebuild. I don't think so. Any money he receives goes into ZANU PF coffers and is used to perpetuate his violent pursuit of ridding Zimbabwe of the 'bloody' whites.

Robb WJ Ellis

The Bearded Man