Zanu (PF) steals farm, land and future
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Tony Saxon
Friday, 15 April 2011 11:13
Named & Shamed
Five Zanu (PF) ministers among the senior party officials to join the
looting spree at Kondizi Farm: Didymus Mutasa, Joseph Made, Christopher
Mushohwe, Munacho Mutezo and Mike Nyambuya.
Stolen equipment
48 tractors
4 Scania trucks
5 UD trucks
26 motorbikes
several T35 trucks
MUTARE – Where 5000 Zimbabwean employees once made a good living off the
productive land, there is now severe hunger. Where healthy crops once
sprouted, there are now nothing but weeds.
This is the sad story of Kondozi Farm, formerly one of Zimbabwe’s biggest
horticultural products exporters, before it was ruined by Zanu (PF) after
its often bloody land seizures under President Robert Mugabe.
Good Friday 2004 was not so good for Edwin Moyo – the rightful owner of the
farm located in Odzi, about 40km west of Mutare, and his 5000 workers.
Dozens of armed police arrived with water cannons, submachine guns and
ordered everyone to vacate the property.
The partisan police and overzealous war veterans blocked off the road
leading to the farm, looted the offices and beat anyone who sought to resist
their orders.
Five Zanu (PF) ministers, namely Didymus Mutasa, Joseph Made, Christopher
Mushohwe, Munacho Mutezo and Mike Nyambuya, were among the senior party
officials to join the looting spree.
Zimbabwe’s Attorney General gave the cabinet ministers a couple of months to
return equipment looted from key horticultural farms or face arrest. But the
order fell on deaf ears as the ministers defied the call.
The stolen equipment included 48 tractors, four Scania trucks, five UD
trucks, several T35 trucks and 26 motorbikes. Several tonnes of fertilisers
and chemicals were also lost.
The High Court in May 2004 granted Barclays an order to repossess all
movable farming equipment at Kondozi Farm.
Movable assets listed in the court order included an ERF 30-tonne truck,
two-tonne forklifts, 30 motorised knapsacks, 10 Jialings, 15 Same tractors,
six Nissan Diesel UD 90 chassis & cab trucks, three Nissan Cabstar 4-tonne
trucks, two Nissan 2,7 S/cab trucks and two Nissan 2,7 Hardbody D/cabs.
Barclays-Fincor, Zimbank-Syfrets and the African Banking Corporation were
the chief sponsors of Kondozi, which had established lucrative export
markets in South Africa and Europe.
But unlike earlier farm seizures, the takeover of Kondozi prompted
questions. Many Zimbabweans were puzzled at how the Zanu (PF) government
could take a business which was owned by a black man, employed so many
people and generated so much precious foreign currency.
In defending the takeover, Zanu (PF) officials pointed out that although
Moyo was majority owner of the business, a white family – the De Klerks –
still owned the land.
Yet even within Mugabe’s party, the seizure provoked outrage so intense it
caused a rare public fracture.
The late Vice President Joseph Msika, who oversaw land redistribution for
Mugabe, in vain tried to block the takeover.
Vice President Joice Mujuru, who chaired the National Economic Recovery
Council, also unsuccessfully tried to push for the revival of Kondozi as one
of the major objectives of the National Economic Development Programme.
Shocked workers and nearby villagers – many of whom relied cheap produce
from the land – were left with nothing as they pondered their future.
Moyo owned 52 per cent of Kondozi, running a horticultural company that
stocked vegetable bins throughout Britain and brought in $15 million a year
to Zimbabwe.
Life was good at Kondozi
A former supervisor at the farm, who is now living in poverty, said: “Life
was good at Kondozi. We were paid handsomely and everything flowed smoothly.
We never complained of anything. But when the farm was invaded we were left
jobless. Since that time I am still jobless.”
A former accounts department employee, who now survives on cross-border
trading, said: “I will never forgive them (Zanu PF) for invading the farm.
We were living a comfortable life. The administration of the farm was good,”
he added.
“It was a very big company as there were three buses that carried the
workers from Mutare daily to and from work. It was a prestigious company to
work for and everyone cherished it.”
Jeffrey Marange, a former senior employee, said Kondozi was history which
left behind permanent scars of sad memories.
“Look at Kondozi today, it is like a desert. We used to live a good life but
since Zanu (PF) took away the farm the workers were left suffering and up to
now some are still leaving in abject poverty.”
Marange said some workers, many of them general hands, remain unemployed and
have accused Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) of being insensitive to their plight.
But the Kondozi debacle has returned to haunt Zanu (PF). Kondozi farm lies
in Mutare West constituency which used to be a stronghold of Zanu (PF) where
Manicaland illegal governor Chris Mushowe dominated.
At the 2008 harmonized election the people in Mutare West, still suffering
the pain of the closure of Kondozi Farm, voted for change.
Shaur Mudiwa of PM Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC pipped Mushowe, a shock result
which further suggested Zanu (PF) support was fading in the province.
“People are angry with what Mushowe and other Zanu (PF) did by closing and
invading Kondozi Farm,” said a traditional leader, who requested anonymity
for fear of severe reprisals.
“Zanu (PF) will never win an election here again. Most villagers who used to
work at the farm are still angry. Since 2006 some of our children have not
been going to school, as the former Kondozi workers did not have any income
at all. This is a very grave mistake that Zanu (PF) made.”
Another former worker said: “As workers we can easily identify the ministers
who had disposed the company’s assets in underhand dealings. A lot of spare
parts were sold and machinery and other vehicles were looted and we ended up
recovering scrap metal for our day-today operations.”
Twenty-two farmers, most of whom are black and who sold beans, corn, melons
and other crops under contract to Kondozi, also lost their livelihoods.
Hundreds more workers were employed by these smaller farms, many of which
have stopped producing and are now living in poverty.
A visit to Kondozi Farm today shows that on Kondozi’s 550 acres, only a few
fields still had crops, and these are stunted and immature grown by war
veterans who do not have technical farming expertise.
In April 2004, the same month Kondozi was seized, the United Nations World
Food Programme reported feeding 4.5 million Zimbabweans.
The closure of Kondozi Farm brought more suffering to the community as
school going children dropped out of school. Girls have been married off to
better-off families in exchange of food.
Prostitution and illegal mining has become rife since the collapse of the
farm.
The disheartened workers have called for the farm to be returned to previous
owner, Moyo.
One worker said: “We were better off when we were under Moyo. We enjoyed
everything and we led a normal life. We could afford to live a life with all
the basics, but now we have been made to suffer by few corrupt individuals
and crooks who want to reap where they did not sow.”
The suffering former workers said they have sold property, clothes and
everything they had accumulated in the previous years to buy food.
Former employee Aleck Jangano said: “Our girl children have ventured into
prostitution. There have been family breakdowns, as some wives have deserted
their homes and have been married by illegal diamond dealers at nearby
Chiadzwa diamond field.”
The present state of the farm, previously the cash-cow for most residents of
the city Mutare and Odzi villagers, has left the community hopeless and
pondering a future which appears bleak.