Commercial Farmers' Union of Zimbabwe

Commercial Farmers' Union of Zimbabwe

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SA Farmer arrested and evicted from Chipinge farm

SA farmer arrested & evicted from Chipinge farm

SW Radio Africa News Stories for 02 July 2010

By Alex Bell
02 July 2010

Yet another South African farmer in Zimbabwe, meant to be protected by a bilateral investment protection agreement, has been evicted from his farm, following his unlawful arrest and detention on Thursday.

Mike Odendaal has faced worsening intimidation on his Chipinge property by land invaders, who last month took over his Wolwedraai farm and barred him from entering the property. His home has been vandalised, his property has been looted and his workers have all been forced to flee. Odendaal was eventually forced to seek the intervention of the courts and was last week granted a High Court order giving him the right to remain on the farm.

Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) Vice President, Charles Taffs, told SW Radio Africa on Friday that Odendaal was only allowed to return to the property on Wednesday to collect some personal belongings, mainly furniture. But he was promptly arrested the next day on allegations of occupying the farm “illegally” despite the court order, which also ordered the land invaders to leave. Odendaal was eventually released without charge after the intervention of South African Embassy officials, but remains barred from entering the farm.

At least 18 farmers, all with court protection, have been targeted by land invaders in recent weeks, with the CFU saying ZANU PF’s Didymus Mutasa is directly responsible for the intensified onslaught. Mutasa last month ordered a group of villagers in Chipinge, who are illegally occupying a coffee plantation, to ignore a court ruling ordering them to vacate the land. The Chipinge Magistrates Court had ordered that the 300 who had moved on to the property should vacate the estate because it was not gazetted for resettlement under Robert Mugabe’s land ‘reform’ programme. But Mutasa ordered the villagers to disregard this legal ruling, and in the weeks that followed, other court orders were also snubbed by land invaders.

“The situation has become almost laughable,” Taffs said. “The police are compromised, the courts are compromised. It’s out of control and we’re all at the mercy of a handful of politicians who are taking what they want.”

Odendaal is also one of a number of South African farmers in Zimbabwe who have been caught up in the wave of farm attacks by land invaders in recent weeks, despite an agreement between the two countries that is meant to protect South African owned land. The Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement (BIPPA) was signed by both countries last year, but has only recently been ratified. But legally the BIPPA will only come into force 30 days after both countries have notified each other that they have fulfilled their “respective constitutional requirements for entry into force.” The exchange of notifications has not yet taken place, so the BIPPA is not yet in force.

South African civil rights imitative AfriForum has threatened legal action against its government for refusing to aid its citizens in Zimbabwe. The group’s legal team had last month written a letter to the South African Department of Trade and Industry demanding intervention on behalf of South African farmers. That letter was ignored.

AfriForum’s CEO Kallie Kriel told SW Radio Africa on Friday that the government’s refusal to help the farmers is a “disgrace.” He explained that court papers will be ready next week, which will ask the court to force the government to honour its responsibility to protect its citizens in Zimbabwe.

“The government’s only reaction has been to invite Robert Mugabe to watch the FIFA World Cup,” Kriel said. “We could have expected some stronger action from the government towards the man who is responsible for the violations facing our citizens.”

The ongoing farm attacks and the government’s refusal to honour various BIPPAs with different countries, means Zimbabwe remains devoid of meaningful investment, and even critical aid is now under threat. Germany’s government said on Friday that it will cut off aid to Zimbabwe unless land invaders are removed from a farm owned by a German national. Germany said, in a protest note to the Zimbabwe foreign ministry, that the occupation of the property owned by German investor Heinrich von Pezold, violates an investment agreement between the two countries. The note said Germany “will not be in a position to support a government which tolerates the blunt theft” of the land where houses, equipment and US$120,000 worth of corn, the staple food, had been looted.

The note issued by the German Embassy explained that an armed mob stormed the estate last month and held two farm managers hostage in their homes. Police arrived later but “did not endeavour to end the hostage taking. Property rights should be dealt with in court and not by applying raw violence,” it said. The German government called on the authorities to end the occupation of the property, and said that the situation had created large financial losses for von Pezold, the largest German investor in Zimbabwe.

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