End Near for Zimbabwe’s Last White Farmers
Peta Thornycroft | Harare May 30, 2011
Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court heard a case on behalf of three farmers who claimed
the constitution excluded confiscation of their land because they bought
their properties after the colonial era ended with independence in 1980.
The Supreme Court did not agree and quickly dismissed their application.
One of the farmers, Colin Cloete, a former president of the Commercial
Farmers’ Union at the height of often violent land invasions seven years
ago, was one of the applicants.
He, like many of his colleagues, has been arrested, harassed and appeared in
court many times, to try to stay on his farm.
Like most surviving white farmers, the cost of going to court to try to
fight his eviction has been unaffordable.
Looking back over the long and difficult years, Cloete, now 58, said his
struggle to remain on his farm did not make economic sense.
“Economically we should have moved off then, at the beginning, as we would
have been 10 years younger and that much more energetic,” said Cloete.
Cloete said he had begun looking looking for a house in Harare, not least so
he could move his possessions to safety.
He said the land invasions launched after Mr. Mugabe lost a referendum in
2000 had hurt him and Zimbabwe’s economy, and no one had benefited from this
except the elite in the ZANU-PF Party.
“We are treated like second-class citizens, we are treated like we are still
just visitors to this place. My father was born in this country, before Mr.
Mugabe, but I am still a visitor,” said Cloete.
Farmer Ken Bartholomew, who was born on his farm, said if he had known what
the future held in 2000, after land invasions began, he would have quit
farming immediately.
“I would have moved off and done something else, not what I have gone
through, with the stress and the amount of finance we have used to fund
courts, lawyers. I would have left,”said Bartholomew.
Commercial Farmers’ Union President Deon Theron said the group has warned
farmers of their bleak prospects.
“The writing is pretty much on the wall for us. We have been fighting for
how many years now to try and continue to try and find a way of dialoguing
to resolve the conflict in an amicable way, but all the doors have been
closed on us,” Theron said.
Mr. Mugabe and his ZANU-PF Party changed the constitution in 2005 to make
all white farms named for acquisition in local newspapers, state property.
Very few evicted white farmers have received compensation for the loss of
their homes and businesses on the farms.
Most of Zimbabwe’s top politicians and public servants, including judges,
among them those presiding at the Supreme Court are beneficiaries of
white-owned farms.
Most farmers say that without dramatic and urgent political change, the only
white farmers who will survive in the short term are those who have made
private arrangements with district political warlords loyal to ZANU-PF.
The 27-month-old inclusive government, which includes the majority party,
the Movement for Democratic Change, has failed to rescue any white farmers
from eviction.