PRESS STATEMENT                                                                      FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 The Commercial Farmers’ Union of Zimbabwe ISSUED BY: CFU President Deon Theron 21 January 2010

Zimbabwe:  New wave of violent farm evictions

 The Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) deplores the fact that Zimbabwe’s Government of National Unity (GNU) has failed to stop a few extremists from openly threatening, physically attacking and illegally evicting commercial farmers and their workers.    These ongoing acts of lawlessness, which escalated over Christmas and are spreading into other provinces, violate the basic principles enunciated in the Global Political Agreement (GPA). In order to turn the economy around and address the country’s shocking unemployment rate [over 90 percent] and now endemic poverty, notably in the rural areas, Zimbabwe needs meaningful investment.  However before this can happen, the international community will need to see that the rule of law is not being applied selectively and that property rights, court orders and signed agreements are respected.  

Attacks continue despite BIPPA with SA

 Despite the signing of a Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) with South Africa on November 27, attacks on South African nationals operating productive commercial farms in this country have increased.   Since Christmas, there have been numerous attacks and evictions and, as we make this statement, these acts of lawlessness are continuing.

In a widely publicized statement that shocked the international investment community, Attorney-General Johannes Tomana said he approved of sending soldiers onto farms to help to remove their occupants for ignoring what he termed “government directives”.  We now have a banana farm in Manicaland which is protected by a BIPPA agreement with Malaysia and the Netherlands invaded by the military, and the bananas being reaped illegally and sold in Harare.  This reckless statement by the Attorney General – and the subsequent action – will have severe consequences for our country and the transitional government. 

Zimbabwe’s army cannot legally be involved in law enforcement as the country is not operating under a state of emergency. Before any soldier could even leave the barracks for the role Mr Tomana has suggested, the President would need to officially declare a State of Emergency.   Such a decision would have to be taken in consultation with Cabinet and, under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, our government would also have to advise the UN Security Council, through the UN Secretary General.   

Failure to respect the rule of law

 Our statutes clearly set out the legal requirements regarding evictions. The Attorney General’s Office must first successfully prosecute an accused person in a court of law to completion, and government must then provide vacant occupation before any beneficiary can move onto the property.  To clarify the above, government must remove the farmer from the farm through a court order, and only when the farmer has vacated the farm can the beneficiary legally move on.  The Attorney General does not have the authority to direct the military to take action against its own citizens. Concurrently, new jambanjas[1] in the Karoi area are being proposed by the Area Lands Committee Chairman, Temba Mliswa, a relative of Minister Didymus Mutasa.  [Mr Mutasa was previously Minister of State for National Security, Lands, land Reform and Resettlement in the President’s Office.]   

Mr Mliswa is notorious for relying on intimidation and violence to achieve his objectives.  He has operated with impunity under the previous Zanu PF government and, despite the formation of the Government of National Unity, continues to do so.  In addition to oppressing Zimbabwe’s white commercial farmers, Mr Mliswa is also threatening to attack black A2[2] farmers who rent land to white farmers. The question needs to be asked:  Under whose authority is he acting?   Furthermore, the CFU would like to know whether Mr Mliswa’s reckless promise to redistribute farms to anyone who joins his jambanjas has any authority or justification. 

We reiterate that these violently orchestrated jambanjas are completely contrary to the GPA and the rule of law.  They must be both rejected and put a stop to immediately by the GNU.                                           

Allocation of any land must only be done in full accordance with the law by legally constituted bodies.  It is time that people like Mr Mliswa and the Attorney General showed respect for and complied with the conditions agreed to in the Global Political Agreement, and adhered to Zimbabwe’s international commitments.  

The SADC Tribunal based in Windhoek, Namibia, has ruled that the 17^th Amendment[3] to the Zimbabwean Constitution not only violates the principles of the rule of law but is racist.  Racism is recognized universally as being a crime against humanity, for very good reasons. It should never be tolerated by any state or government, whether it is white-on-black, black-on-white, or any other variation. Racism is an evil, and Zimbabwe should now implement the commitments it has made by the signing of numerous treaties against any state-sanctioned racism. Violations of this will only invite new international action against Zimbabwe.  

Clarification required by GNU

 In view of the untenable situation and adverse publicity, we pose the following questions to the Government of National Unity: 

1. Should Zimbabwe, a voluntary signatory to the Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), be forced to appear before the UN Committee established by the CERD Treaty [a committee which reports directly to the Security Council] to explain the continuing invasions?

 

1. Can the members of the GNU afford to embarrass themselves and their country, as well as SADC and the AU, by becoming a Security Council agenda item at this stage?

 

1. Can the GNU confirm that it is now government policy to take land back from black farmers because they have chosen to rent it to white farmers?

 

1. Is the GNU committed to ensuring that 2010 will be a period of recovery for all Zimbabweans, or will the nation continue to suffer under the lawlessness of a few?

 We reiterate:  what commercial farmers and their workers are being subjected to constitutes crimes against humanity.  It is time for the GNU to take a principled stand in this regard. As white commercial farmers, we are committed to respect of the law and to producing food for this nation so that Zimbabwe once again becomes food secure.  However, we cannot achieve this without the unequivocal support of the GNU and without the restoration of the rule of law.  

A burden on donor community and SADC

 It is an appalling state of affairs that, as a result of the virtual destruction of the commercial farming sector, our country has had to rely on food aid from the international donor community for almost a decade. We are also very conscious of the burden that the ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe places on our neighbours in the SADC region.  The fall-out from our political and economic crisis has had very serious consequences for the entire subcontinent, impacting on food security, investment, development and tourism. It has also resulted in a mass exodus of well over three million people – men, women and children, many of them rendered destitute – who have flooded into the region. 

Commitment of SADC and South Africa

 We thank the SADC leaders for their ongoing mediation and the South African government in particular for its commitment to resolving the impasse.  President Jacob Zuma’s well-informed and authoritative approach to the crisis is of immeasurable value.   The South African government’s statement of January 17 that formal contact has been made with the Zimbabwean government on issues raised by South African farmers under siege in Zimbabwe represents an important milestone in the decade-long crisis. 

If the rule of law is restored and the situation on the ground in the commercial farming sector is resolved, every single person in Zimbabwe will benefit, both in terms of food security and because our economy is agri-based. The CFU calls on the GNU to meet with us and to commit itself to halting the farm invasions so that together we can to chart a way forward for the rebuilding of Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector.  

DEON THERONPresident

Commercial Farmers’ Union

Harare,

Zimbabwe 

Tel:           +263 4 309 800 Zim Cell:   +263 912 246 233   E-mail:      [email protected]  

Statistics:  The cost of the destabilisation of agriculture and other statistics/ overleaf

 

STATISTICS:  THE COST OF THE DESTABILIZATION OF AGRICULTURE Trade deficit:  Zimbabwe’s US$5 billion trade deficit over the past five years was accrued largely due to destabilisation of agriculture (ref. Parliamentary report 2007).The combined costs of the land reform are staggering – they include: 

·         Nearly US$2.8 billion in international food aid on an emergency basis

·         Nearly US$12 billion in lost agricultural production over 10 years

·         A potential US$10 billion in compensation 

Total cost estimate: US$33 billion

  

General Agricultural and Plantation Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) report:

November 2009 – Statistics 

• More than 60 percent of farm workers said they were tortured and forced to leave the farms that were their homes during seizures since 2000. The report said farm workers reporting such abuse outnumbered their former white-farmer employers by 100 to one.

 

• The report says white farmers who have kept in contact with their workers after they were evicted estimate about 40 percent of their employees have died since eviction.

 

• Prior to the land-reform program, GAPWUZ had a membership of 150,000. Currently they have only 25,000 members left.

 

• During September 2009, GAWUZ reported that 66,000 farm workers in Zimbabwe had been made homeless since February and were fighting for survival following the renewed spate of invasions of white-owned farms.

 

• In 2008, GAPWUZ estimated that 350,000 black farm workers had been displaced by the redistribution of farms to new black farmers since 2000.  The 250 000 seasonal casual workers were also seriously affected.  Together with their families, the total number affected is estimated at around 2 million.

 

Additional Statistics

 

• In 2000, there were about 4,500 commercial farmers.  At present there are fewer than 300, virtually all farming on significantly reduced pieces of land.  Of these, more than 150 are experiencing the disruption of farming operations and some been forced violently to leave their farms.

 

• At the end of October 2009, the number of productive commercial farmers continuing to be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s office stood at 152 farmers. 

 

• In February this year, the World Food Program (WFP) announced that it aimed to provide food assistance to 5.1 million people across Zimbabwe – the highest number of beneficiaries in a single month since the regional crisis began in 2002. In January, WFP assisted 4.3 million people.