Farmer gets reprieve

 HESTER Theron, the elderly mother of Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU)  president, Deon Theron, who was facing eviction from her farm, has won a  temporary reprieve after she successfully launched a High Court appeal against a magistrates’ court ruling. The 79-year-old Theron filed an urgent appeal against Harare magistrate Archie Wochiunga’s ruling last month ordering her to vacate her dairy and beef holding, Friedenthal Farm, in Beatrice.

 Wochiunga also slapped Theron with a three-month jail sentence with labour for refusing to vacate a farm she has owned for over 50 years.

 However, the sentence was wholly suspended for five years on condition she vacates the farm by December 8.

 But Theron’s lawyer, Godfrey Mamvura of Scanlen & Holderness, appealed at the High Court against both the judgment and sentence.

 High Court Judge, Justice Joseph Musakwa, said Theron should not be evicted from her farm until her application has been heard.

 Deon said they were happy with Musakwa’s judgment, as the rule of law had been upheld.

 “For now we are happy, the law has been applied properly and my mother will be staying at the farm until the application we filed at the High Court has been heard,’ he said.

 Friedenthal produces milk from a herd of 400 cows. There are also 200 sheep and nine breeding crocodiles on the farm.

 Deon also said commercial farmers were failing to plant their crops due to the escalation of violence and disturbances on the farms, which would result in the nation failing to produce enough food to feed itself during
 the 2009/10 farming season.

 Several white commercial farmers are facing eviction from their farms as President Robert Mugabe’s loyalists grab some of the country’s most productive farmland.

 Zimbabwe has paid compensation for about 3% of the 6 500 white-owned farms it has seized under its land reform programme.

 According to a report tabled at a recent World Bank-sponsored conference, the “reforms” have drastically reduced the area of land under cultivation by 500 000 hectares, while land under irrigation has declined to 139 500 hectares.