War vets invade black-owned farms
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/
Suspected war veterans here have invaded commercial farms owned by fellow
blacks in a move that flies in the face of Zanu (PF)’s purported empowerment
drive.
03.07.1206:49pm
by Brenna Matendere Munyati
Midlands Provincial Chief Lands Officer, Joseph Shoko, confirmed receiving
reports of the invasions.
“We have ordered everyone who has illegally settled on the commercial farms
to vacate the plots as a matter of urgency,” he said.
Shoko added that it is not the policy of government to forcefully occupy
resettled farms.
Sources in the Chemagora smallholder farming area in Zhombe told The
Zimbabwean that the war veterans were threatening the farm owners with
unspecified action if they refused to vacate their properties.
“I have a lease for about 400 hectares of land here but the war vets have
gone on to occupy it all,” said a farmer who refused to be named.
“What is surprising is that the invaders are not being arrested despite the
fact that we have reported the cases to the police,” said another farmer.
Scores of other farmers said they were terrified by the levels of harassment
coming from the former liberation war fighters.
The Zanu (PF) led government in 2000 embarked on a hurried land
redistribution programme that displaced more than 4 000 commercial white
farmers.
President Robert Mugabe’s government then claimed that the programme was
necessary to empower thousands of black farmers who were landless.
However, political opponents and critics accused the government of using the
land redistribution exercise as a populist vehicle to regain support
following the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change that was
threatening Zanu (PF)’s hold on power.
Most of the prime land that was grabbed by powerful Zanu (PF) functionaries,
while poor communal farmers were resettled on unyielding land, a trend that
forced some of them to retrace their footsteps to their old homes.
Zanu (PF) activists who were used as foot soldiers have also invaded
conservancies, sugar plantations and woodlots.