War veterans are involved in the take-over of land

Mugabe's party unleashes gangs on farmers

By Ed O'Loughlin, Herald Correspondent in Johannesburg

Stepping up a two-pronged offensive against Zimbabwe's white minority this week, President Robert Mugabe's party sent youth gangs to attack white farmers and ordered police to arrest them if they reacted in self-defence.

The focus of this week's unrest was the northern town of Chinhoyi - in Mr Mugabe's home district west of Harare - where 23 farmers were arrested and in some cases beaten after they went to the aid of a colleague attacked by party militants. Twenty-one of the farmers were still being held without bail yesterday.

On Tuesday the violence escalated when police allowed a group of pro-government youths to rampage through the town, stoning white motorists and assaulting 10 whites, including three women and an elderly man.

Witnesses said one victim was stabbed and another slashed.

The police again stood by on Wednesday while the youths, who claim to be veterans of Mr Mugabe's pre-1980 liberation army, took over the courtroom where the white farmers were to apply for bail.

As the youths chanted death threats, the magistrate, Mr Godfrey Gwaka, was forced to postpone the hearing out of concern for the security of the accused.

Journalists working for foreign media and for Zimbabwe's own beleaguered independent press were harassed and forced to flee the town.

Armed squatters were burning and looting farms across the region, forcing the evacuation of about 40 white families, farming officials said.

The only people arrested in connection with this week's attacks have been white.

According to the Government and police, the violence was sparked on Monday when a large group of white farmers attacked and assaulted a group of peaceful blacks participating in the government-backed invasion of one of 1,700 white-owned farms.

"It is true the farmers have been attacking people ... It is the farmers who are unleashing this violence," the Police Minister, Mr John Nkomo, said on state television. "Measures are being taken to nip it in the bud."

According to the Commercial Farmers' Union, which represents most of the 4,500 mainly white large farmers, the arrested men had gone to aid a colleague when - as has become commonplace in Zimbabwe - police refused to protect him against a gang of youths attacking his home.

The Chinhoyi attacks were not the only anti-white violence in Zimbabwe this week. On Monday Mr Ralph Corbett, 76, became the ninth white farmer to be murdered since February last year. Last weekend suspected ruling party militants bound him with wire and struck him on the head with an axe, leaving him to bleed to death in his farm in the Midlands province.

In Nyathi, east of Harare, a farmer, David Joubert, collapsed and was taken to hospital after being assaulted by "war veterans" on Tuesday. The 52-year-old has since been charged with attempted murder.

Professor John Makumbe, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe, blamed the violence on the "hooliganism" of government supporters taking advantage of Mr Mugabe's decision to abandon the rule of law.

"There is general dereliction of duty on the part of the police force," he said. "It's deliberate as long as the victims are whites or members of the opposition. It's the opposite story when members of ZANU-PF [the ruling party] are the victims."

Non-government observers say the attacks on whites are an attempt by the 76-year-old president to use racial scapegoating to boost his flagging popularity.

Since losing a constitutional referendum last year, Mr Mugabe has encouraged his "war veterans" to invade 1,700 white-owned farms and promised to seize 95 per cent of the country's white-owned land for redistribution to his supporters.

Economists say disruption to agriculture caused by the farm invasions could lead to starvation this year.

The Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) reported that at least two farmers had been shot at, with more than $10 million worth of property looted from farmhouses, two stores and one butchery looted and four farmers’ vehicles and large quantities of fertiliser stolen.
The CFU spokesman said: “One farmer was under siege for eight hours and there were three blocked roads.”
The attacks in Makonde came as 20 farmers appeared before Chinhoyi senior magistrate Godfrey Gwaka, on charges of public violence after a clash with illegal settlers at Listonshields Farm in the Chinhoyi area on Monday morning.
Gwaka yesterday postponed to this afternoon his ruling on a bail application by Lawrence Chibwe of Stumbles and Rowe, and Roseline Zigomo of Atherstone and Cook, for the farmers. The State is opposing bail, saying the farmers’ lives would be in danger.
Initially, 22 farmers appeared in court on Wednesday, but Gert Pretorius, 72, is in hospital after he collapsed in the dock on Wednesday. Mark Shaw has been released.
Chibwe said he was threatened on Tuesday evening in front of police officers by a person he identified as a senior war veteran at the Chinhoyi police station.
He said: “He asked me why I was representing whites. No arrests were made by the police.”
The situation at the court remained tense yesterday as hundreds of Zanu PF supporters in and around the court complex waited for the magistrate’s decision.

According to the survey, southern Africans overwhelmingly indicated that politicians were the most corrupt in the region.
“Politicians are perceived to be the most corrupt in their societies while teachers and traditional leaders were seen as being less so,” reads a report on the survey, conducted in May and June of 2000 by the Human Rights Research and Documentation Trust of Southern Africa (Sahrit) and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI).
Sahrit promotes human rights and good governance within southern Africa, while the NDI is a non-governmental organisation working for democratic governance in the region.
The survey showed that governments would face credibility problems in attempting to combat corruption on their own, with most respondents saying they did not believe their elected officials were committed to fighting corruption.
They needed to work in partnership with civil society, the private sector and the media, if they are to be believed.
One of the 57 standard questions in the questionnaire asked a representative sample of 1 694 individuals on issues related to ethics in their communities, countries, the Sadc region, Africa and elsewhere.
It questioned them on how they would describe, with respect to corruption, nine different groups of professions in their countries.
That is, to what extent they thought people in the different professions were corrupt?
The professions were civil servants, police officers, immigration and customs officials, government tender boards, teachers, judges, businessmen and women, politicians and traditional leaders.
Responses were received in Zulu, Oshiwambo, Kiswahili, French, Portuguese, and English, as well as other languages.
Politicians and police officers were seen as the most corrupt with 72,6 percent of respondents indicating that all or most politicians are corrupt and 72,4 percent thought all or most police officers are corrupt.
The majority of civil servants, immigration and customs officials and government tender boards were also viewed as dishonest.
For these three groups respectively, 64,9 percent, 63,5 percent and 61,2 percent of the respondents reported that all or most are corrupt.
Less than half the respondents felt, however, that all or most judges, teachers and traditional leaders are corrupt.
About 42,7 percent, 37,1 percent, and only 27,4 percent of the respondents reported that all or most judges, teachers and traditional leaders are corrupt, respectively.
There were no significant differences in the responses of the different demographic groups for male, female, rural and urban southern Africans pertaining to any of the nine professions.
Southern Africans with higher formal education were more likely than those with little education to feel that officials involved in the government tender process, politicians and businessmen are corrupt.
The same group of respondents indicated that teachers and judges were less likely to be corrupt.
The study also showed that southern Africans overwhelmingly believe that corruption is a serious problem.
Over half the respondents said they personally experienced corruption all the time or many times implying corruption is very real in the Sadc region.
Most southern Africans believe that corruption is worse in the public than in either the private or non-governmental sectors, and in urban rather than rural communities. They believe there is a strong-link between corruption and economic performance, with three-quarters feeling that most major economic problems in their countries were caused by corruption.

In his first quarterly report on the economy to Parliament, Makoni blamed the continuing macro-economic instability, the acute shortage of foreign currency and the volatile situation on the commercial farms for the economy’s poor performance in the last six months.
He said Zimbabwe received substantial external support when it enjoyed sound relations with the international community. Makoni said 204 companies had closed down between January and June this year, with about 2 500 workers retrenched by 208 companies.
He said the government was consulting its partner countries and international organisations to share experiences in managing crisis situations. He said the price of fuel would remain high for the remainder of the year due to events on the international scene.
He said: “Inflation is now over 60 percent and there are major reductions in output for crops such as maize, flue-cured tobacco, sorghum, tobacco and paprika, and the tourism sector declined sharply due to the country’s negative image. Average hotel bed occupancy rates dropped from 30,4 percent for the past five months of 2000 to 27 percent the same period this year.”
All economic sectors in the country are experiencing negative growth. For example, the construction sector has so far declined by 53 percent. A total amount of $55,6 billion was collected as revenue against a target of $60,9 billion, giving a negative variance of 9 percent, Makoni said.

Ben Zietsman, the Commercial Farmers Union Matabeleland president, and the Member of Parliament for Nkayi, Abednico Bhebhe, confirmed on Tuesday there was rivalry on the farms over farmhouses and property.
Zietsman said: “Factions have developed in Nyamandlovu where settlers are claiming territories on the basis of property on the farms. There is a lot of confusion.”
But the official position is that farmhouses should b e turned into communal infrastructure, like clinics or schools, for use by the settlers within a specific area.
But because of the chaotic nature of the reform programme, settlers were reported to be taking over the property.
Incidents of settlers fighting each other have been reported in Nkayi and Nyamandlovu, over the ownership of farm property on allocated land.
Some of the settlers yesterday said they had become suspicious of favouritism in the allocation of properties, after it emerged that influential people were getting land on which there were farmhouses.
One settler at Nkayi said: “We have realised that most of the prominent people, like civil servants and top war veterans, have been allocated land that includes farmhouses.”
Abednico Bhebhe, the MP for Nkayi, said he had received reports of settlers fighting over property.
“I understand one person was seriously injured in a fight over the property,” he said.
One Nkayi settler is reported to have been rushed to hospital following a fight with another occupier over farm property.

Maguire, 53, in the country for the past six years, left Harare last night for London, bound for his native Ireland.
Maguire worked at churches in Mabvuku and Tafara for two years before he was appointed the parish priest at St Gerard’s.
Patrick Chinamasa, the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, and his wife are members of the parish.