Robert Mugabe seizes former Rhodesian PM’s family farm
Former Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith’s farm in central Zimbabwe has
finally been taken from his family by Robert Mugabe’s officials.
By Peta Thornycroft, Johannesburg4:00PM GMT 06 Dec 2012
Mr Mugabe’s lands ministry has given Gwenoro farm, where Rhodesia’s last
white minority leader lived with his family for nearly 50 years, to a small
technical college in Zimbabwe’s midlands.
It was on this farm in Shurugwi, about 140 miles south west of Harare, that
Mr Smith’s ashes were scattered after his death in Cape Town five years ago.
His long-time farm manager, Owen Jarman, said: “The two adjoining farms were
taken about 10 years ago, but we all hoped this one, the small home farm,
would survive.
“But it didn’t and we were told in September we must go and so that is what
we are doing.”
Mr Smith bought Gwenoro, which means “place of the kudu”, in 1948, the year
he won a parliamentary seat for the Rhodesia Front party which claimed it
would preserve white rule.
Mr Jarman managed the 4,000-acre cattle ranch when the former prime minister
went to live in Harare after his wife died in 1994. Mr Smith left Zimbabwe
after the death of his only child, Alec, in 2006, moving to Cape Town to be
near his stepchildren.
Mr Jarman said he is packing up the farm, trying to sell off some of the
assets such as cattle, and paying retrenchment packages to long-time
workers.
“There are about 10 workers who lived here and worked for Mr Smith for many
years. His former gardener, Moroi Chata has nowhere to go and is very old
and frail and I am appealing to the authorities to provide him with a home.”
Mr Smith declared independence from Britain in 1965, leading to a civil war
that ended with a settlement ahead of the first non-racial elections in
1980, won by Mr Mugabe’s Zanu PF party.
Some 4,000 white farmers in Zimbabwe have had their land and homes taken by
Mr Mugabe’s supporters in seizures that began in 2000.
Mr Jarman said he has told Mr Smith’s stepchildren, Robert and Jean, that
the farm has been seized. “They were sad to hear this news,” he said, “but
have not been back here since they scattered his ashes.”