Farmer Ben Freeth presented with MBE
By Alex Bell
13 October 2010
Former Chegutu farmer Ben Freeth was presented with a prestigious royal
award in London on Wednesday, in recognition of his fight for justice and
peace in Zimbabwe.
Freeth was named as one of 44 recipients of a Member of the Order of the
British Empire (MBE) as part of the Queen’s birthday celebrations in June.
An MBE is a prestigious international honour and is a tangible recognition
of Freeth’s efforts to combat the injustices of Robert Mugabe’s land-grab
campaign. On Wednesday, Freeth and other recipients were presented to the
Queen, who officially bestowed the honour on them.
Freeth told SW Radio Africa about the experience on Wednesday and agreed it
was “surreal.” He said the MBE award is a “great credit to all the people
that have been fighting so hard for a better Zimbabwe.” He called the award
an honour that gives encouragement to the ongoing fight against illegal land
seizures, a campaign that has left millions of people destitute. Over the
last decade of Mugabe’s land grab campaign, an estimated two million farm
workers and their families have lost their jobs and homes, and the
destruction of the agricultural sector means the country is almost entirely
dependent on food aid.
“This is really encouraging for all of the farming community and their
efforts during this past turbulent and traumatic decade,” Freeth said. “It
is also the start of more things to come in what we can do to serve
Zimbabwe.”
Freeth added that he hopes the award will help the ongoing fight for change
in Zimbabwe: “We hope it will create a new, positive platform from which our
country can move forward. Hopefully we can get the people who have the power
to help.”
Freeth and his father-in-law Mike Campbell, who co-own Mount Carmel farm in
Chegutu, made history in 2008 when they took Mugabe’s government to court
over the land grab. The protracted legal battle within the human rights
Tribunal of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) led to the
pair and Campbell’s wife Angela, being abducted, beaten and tortured. But
despite their serious injuries, they continued with their campaign to seek a
legal precedent to protect Zimbabwean commercial farmers from land invasion.
The SADC Tribunal eventually ruled in the farmers’ favour in late 2008,
declaring the land grab unlawful. Mugabe’s government was ordered to protect
the farmers and their right to farm peacefully on their properties, an order
that has been completely ignored. Freeth and Campbell have both been forced
off their property after their homes were burnt down last year by land
invaders. Land invasions and the persecution of farmers in the courts have
also continued to intensify across the country.
The blatant disregard of the SADC Tribunal meanwhile has not resulted in any
action from SADC, who instead decided earlier this year to ‘review’ the
legal body. SADC leaders resolved at their annual summit to ‘review the
mandate of the Tribunal’, which many critics have said demonstrates open
support for Mugabe. The decision means that no farm cases still pending in
the court, will be dealt with. This essentially leaves commercial farmers
with no legal protection against ongoing illegal land seizures.