Please circulate this far and wide
Through the eyes of a legislator, commercial farmer and patriot.
By:
Roy Bennett - Member of Parliament for Chimanimani (MDC) Zimbabwe
6 July
2002
The time has come for each and every Zimbabwean to stand up and
be counted.
All of us are visitors in Gods country and all of us historically
entered Zimbabwe through different ways and means, that the Bushmen who are now
extinct were here before the Black people and that the Asians in their different
sects and religions, the White's in their different sects and religions, and the
union of all three the coloured people now make up the population of Zimbabwe is
fact, and an irreversible act of God.
Each an every one of us have rights as
people and all choose a path to walk along, every one of us have had some form
of religious teachings and cultural up bringing to know the difference between
right and wrong.
Politics drive a nation and form the Government.
Good Governance and Democracy develop a country and its people prosper
and poverty is eradicated.
Bad Governance and Oppression destroy a country
and its people committed forever to poverty.
I have chosen my path to be involved in the politics of our nation to
bring about change for good governance in the interest of the Nation and its
people I would term myself a PATRIOT.
I am a Christian and believe in the
word of God by which I try to live my life.
I as have many Zimbabweans
through the decades, sacrificed personally for my beliefs.
That I am white does not make me above anyone else or too special to
risk my life and family and or worldly possessions to stand by what is right
with the majority of Zimbabweans.
I was humbly elected by the people of Chimanimani to represent them in
Parliament, I knew full well the ramifications involved taking on a repressive
ZANU PF regime, as did the people who voted me in and we as a district have
equally been targeted and harassed for our beliefs I am not seen as a white
commercial farmer but as a fellow Zimbabwean, and as long as the people want to
use me to represent them for nationalism change and good governance I will never
go back no amount of intimidation oppression or threats will work
I moved around the country in the white commercial farming and business
circles speaking to and advising people to commit themselves as nationalists and
stand by for what is right for the nation and people of Zimbabwe, it was
necessary to do this as for 20 years ZANU PF had through intimidation made
whites believe that they should never get involved in politics, my message was
do you belong, is this your country do you owe the country and the people
anything if so contribute in any way you can for a positive change for better
governance and democracy.
I am proud to say that the response was overwhelming and people
committed themselves and took a stand as Zimbabweans, there is no doubt that
this commitment very definitely played a very crucial role in assisting the
opposition get as far as it has in Zimbabwe today.
The current Zimbabwean Government is comprised of 2 political parties
The Ruling Party and the Opposition, the Opposition having been formed by
committed nationalists, the majority former members of the ruling party.
The Ruling Party has been in power for 22 years, and history
tells us that they have not dealt very kindly with any form of opposition and
successfully destroyed the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union through the
Gukurahundi era and by sucking them into a Government of National Unity and
destroying them as an opposition force. They then had a 2/3rds majority in
Parliament and proceeded to change the constitution a number of times and rule
the country as ZANU PF (PVT) LTD.
It suited ZANU PF (PVT) LTD to use all people of Zimbabwe across all
racial divides to enrich them as long as they did not get involved in
Politics.
The same people formed the opposition, which encompassed all racial
groups, and ZANU PF (PVT) LTD was seriously challenged and unless they did
something drastic their hold on power and enrichment was about end.
There is absolutely no doubt and the facts are there for all to see the
Land issue and Race issue was evilly used by ZANU PF to destroy any support for
the opposition and destroy or intimidate any body linked to them, this is self
evident in the referendum to change the constitution.
The unfolding and continuous nightmare still exists what is happening
to white commercial farmers and businesses is happening to millions of rural and
urban Zimbabweans who have dared stand up to ZANU PF (PVT) LTD to say whites
should never get involved in politics but should stand by and watch evil prevail
as long as they are left alone to make money has to be a supremacist/expatriate
attitude, everything that anybody has made from the soil or labour of Zimbabwe
is owed to that country and its people if all those that have made huge fortunes
from our Nation had utilised some of those resources and energy to assist the
majority of Zimbabweans out of poverty ZANU PF would never have been able to
oppress the people as it has.
The facts of the land is that anyone who has
any contact with the rural folk would know that to them land is a minor issue,
the majority of rural folk have land, the real issue is poverty. The majority of
rural Zimbabweans in congested rural areas are living in abstract poverty
because government has never delivered and they are worse off today than they
have ever been, the most poverty stricken being those resettled in the last 20
years for no other reason other than they have had no support or infrastructure,
there are a small number of success stories being those done with the right
support and infrastructure given.
A good example of a successful resettlement
programme is the Nyamakati Resettlement Scheme between Karoi and Makuti assisted
by the German Government the scheme's success is self evident, virgin bush was
reverted into a thriving agrarian centre economically empowering people.
The reason for this success was that it was done with the right support
and infrastructure, and because it was virgin bush it required committed hard
working farmers and not political opportunist's seeing a thriving successful
farming enterprise producing for the nation, forcefully acquiring it to turn
into a broken down shambles, and for this there is proof one only needs to visit
the very fertile Glendale farming area to see the farms of ministers and Vice
Presidents lying derelict.
How many congested rural folk have been resettled, where are the Chiefs
involvement in resettling their people? How many Chefs multiply own farms. Have
resettled people produced anything of what the properties they have taken over
produced, surely agrarian land reform you do not take away productive land and
make it un productive, my own property is a prime example and is a microcosm of
Zimbabwe as a whole.
In May 2000 during the lead up to parliamentary elections my property
was illegally besieged by ZANU PF activists. They occupied the property,
assaulted and threatened my family and employees, stole and abused all my
vehicles, irrigation equipment, killed and butchered 8 head of cattle, broke
into looted and occupied my residence damages amounted to then forty million
Zimbabwe dollars all in the name of land invasion, these people were then
arrested after the elections and we returned to normal farming operations.
We
had ploughed disked and limed ready to plant 50 Ha of Coffee and 50 Ha of maize.
The land prep and inputs for this costing ZWD 936423.00 a coffee nursery ready
to plant out at a cost of ZWD 360750.00 all this replaced by a fine crop of
weeds.
DDF tractors arrived and a total of 48 plots were ploughed. 12 over
land that had already been prepared and the rest in Giant Rhodes grass pastures
that had been fertilised for hay to harvested for winter-feed. Of the 48 plots
ploughed only 24 were planted and of the it was difficult to see the maize for
weeds if a total of 20 tones of maize were reaped it would have been a generous
estimate most being sold to my workers on the farm as our 100 tones stock of
ration maize had been impounded by the GMB using armed soldiers to plunder our
storage shed and load GMB trucks to date I have not received any payment.
We would have yielded in the region of 400 to 500 tones of maize and
the coffee would have returned 150 tones of coffee in 2003 grossing USD 200 000
foreign exchange into our reserve bank.
I was prevented using ½ of the farm where my Giant Rhodes grass
pastures are for 1200 head of cattle ZWD 2 800 000 in fertilisers were put on
the pastures, these lands have been barely used by anyone else and I was
prevented from mowing and bailing hay by armed soldiers, we were also prevented
using the paddocks on the mountains and that grazing has become rank and useless
from lying idle, I run a beef herd of 1200 head, this last week I had the first
12 deaths from poverty and we still have the winter to get through, do I stand
and watch the cattle die while half the farm has untouched grazing.
Charleswood Estate was granted Export Processing Zone Status and issued
an E.P.Z. License, which fall under the EPZ Act. This was for a state of the
arts Coffee Mill and has two external investors involved, who were guaranteed no
state interference through the Export Processing Zone Act. There are two joint
Zimbabwe Investment Centre projects on the farm both of them with external
partners, the one Mawenje lodge a 12 bed tourist lodge, the other a contracting
company with considerable investment in contracting machinery both invested in
Zimbabwe with guarantees from Government both projects now at a stand idle
because of ZANU PF (PVT) LTD.
On Charleswood Estate we employ 200 permanent employee's and 1200
contract/seasonal workers run 1200 head of cattle, 50 ha of maize 210 ha of
coffee and 150 ha of pastures an annual foreign exchange earnings of 1 500 000
US when in full production and all this to be destroyed for nothing in
exchange.
This is what is happening nation wide there are no landless being
resettled most are state employee's ordered onto farms to loot and take what
they want with guarantees of no repercussions and ZANU PF have hidden the truth
with the assistance of the farming bodies mentioned above.
No Zimbabwean in his right mind would oppose any form of Agrarian Land
reform that empowers people economically keeping the land productive or better
still making it more productive.
Can anyone in their right mind advocate
working with the government of the day ZANU PF (PVT) LTD, and be part and parcel
to the destruction of our nation and the severe hardships that will follow I
challenge anyone to be able to say "I did what I could in any little way that I
could to stop the destruction to our Nation.
"ZANU PF (PVT) LTD WILL GO!!!! ANY LITTLE THING WE CAN DO WILL
ACCELERATE THEIR DEMISE AND RETURN ZIMBABWE TO PEOPLES POWER FOR THE PEOPLE BY
THE PEOPLE HELPING OUR COUNTRY MOVE FORWARD. UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE
FALL.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The
future of whites in Zimbabwe: Well done Roy!
by Masipula Sithole
Financial
Gazette
May 20, 2000
What a lesson to all of us, black and white.
Here is one man, albeit a white man, who has placed his fortune in the hope
that one day the "rule of law" and "good governance" will return to our land.
Above all, Bennett is upholding a cherished principle and value, "freedom of
association", at its darkest hour.
Have we, as blacks, viewed the white
man's presence "only in instrumental, not intrinsic, terms" and now he is
"expendable", we are ready to dispose of him (in Murphree's formulation)?
"Varume tapindwa neiko"? What has gotten into us?
What we are doing will
soon backfire. Certainly our ancestors don't approve of what we are doing in the
name of hunger for land. The sooner we stop the better.
Next week we
consider: "Who is being deceived: MDC kana kuti ZANU PF"?
Meanwhile I
predict that some day, citizen Roy Bennett of Zimbabwe will be given an award,
perhaps an international award.
Well done Roy!
Masipula Sithole is a professor of political science at the University
of Zimbabwe.
If voters share that affection for Bennett, he could
become the first white MP elected here since Zimbabwe scrapped the 20 seats
guaranteed to whites. "I am not going to be intimidated...." Bennett says. "If I
lose my life to it, so be it. For my children to have a life in this country,
someone has to make a stand," he vows.
LEGAL BULLETIN 22ND AUGUST 2002
Please visit the
website to keep updated as time critical
http://www.justiceforagriculture.com.
GWANDA
WEDNESDAY 21 AUGUST 2002
web Low and Barry represented the Connolly Brothers,
one with case on
remand, $2000 bail and not to return to his farm without ZRP
escort; The
other case fresh in court.
JAG happy to report a
successful result: Both have bondholders predating
their Section 5 orders.
Both bonds are still current. The lawyer argued the
Tengwe Estates Case in
High Court (High Court Number: HH109-02, HC 5181/02
Date: 22 June and 7
August, 2002) under Justice Hungwe, and ruling thereof,
and tabled letters
from the bondholder stating that they had been served
neither Section 5 nor
Section 8.
The Magistrate overturned the previous ruling on the one case
instructing
the farmer to return to his farm and ordered restitution of bail.
He also
ruled the Section 8 applicable to the fresh case Null and Void
because of
precedents set in the Tengwe Estates High Court ruling under
Justice Hungwe.
CHINHOYI 22ND AUGUST 2002
Roy Harvey, representing a
number of farmer clients in this court, has had
considerable success in
gaining clients' reprieve by citing the provision
in the Land
Acquisition Bill stating that it is encumbent upon the State to
prove its
case. He is then demanding that the State prove that Section 5's
and Section
8's have in fact been served on individual farmers by furnishing
the court
with the relevant Certificates of Service. It appears that many
Lands
Committees will be unable to comply especially on the older Section
8's. It
has already come to our attention the use of a fraudulent
Certificate of
Service, recently written, and tabled in a different
court
yesterday.
Please bear with us - JAG help lines are overloaded
and we are having to set
up more lines. When you phone you will first be
asked to give your details
so a comprehensive database can be set up. The
person answering will ask you
for your:
Province
Farmers
Association
Farm Name
Acquisition Status
Who your A2 is?
Once in
the database your details will pull up automatically. Di Southey
on
011-424712 and Rudo on 011-710024. Email
justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw.
Jenni
Williams does the news and publicity 011 213 885 or 091 300 456 email
jennipr@mweb.co.zwUse your JAG area
reps too and contact farmers not on e-mail - they are very
vulnerable because
we forget how much information goes out on e-mail. Send
copies of relevant
e-mails to other farmers in other districts - it doesn't
matter if they get
duplicates. If it helps just one farmer it is worth it.
BACKGROUND
BRIEFING
Over the last few weeks there have been several rulings from the
High Court
Zimbabwe held yesterday that when a bond holder or other party
with an
interest in land is not served with a copy of the preliminary notice
of
acquisition, that Notice and any acquisition order or application to
the
Administrative Court is NULL AND VOID AND OF NO LEGAL EFFECT. The
property
will have to be listed again if the authority is still interested
in
acquiring it. Costs are to be paid by the Minister of Lands, Agriculture
and
Rural Resettlement.
By the same principle, if preliminary notice
is given but notice of the
acquisition order is not, the acquisition order
will be null and void and of
no legal effect.
This could bring relief
to many farming enterprises facing forcible shutdown
by police over this
weekend. In many - perhaps most - cases, those carrying
out the
programme have not given notice to bond holders.
Anyone inciting or
arresting people continuing to conduct their farming
enterprise without
having proof of service on bondholders can (and will) be
held personally
liable for wrongful arrest or malicious prosecution.
This notice is vital
for a number of reasons:
Banks clearly have an interest in preserving their
collateral security. If
the acquiring authority wants to compulsorily take
that security, it is
OBLIGED by the laws of Zimbabwe to notify them of each
step it takes.
Bank officials will generally have a duty to act for the
benefit of their
depositors and shareholders, which includes pension funds
and other
investors.
There have been reports of some banks continuing to
press for repayment of
their loans from the farms at the expense of farmers
and farm workers
without first taking reasonable legal steps available to
them to protect
their own collateral security.
Some have even demanded
full immediate repayment although this will
effectively shut down the farming
enterprise, often in the midst of
harvesting, resulting in financial losses
and a loss of jobs and of vital
production on the affected farms.
In
addition to bank employees, investors, farmers and farm-workers having
an
interest in ensuring this step is always taken, Government itself has
to
know the impact of all proposed acquisitions. Financial Institutions have
to
be notified so they can advise what is owed, and the Minister can take
into
account the particular impact and overall impact on their depositors
and
shareholders before deciding to proceed with acquisitions - particularly
if
compensation will only be paid over 5 years.
This is not the only
way in which the laws enacted here are being violated.
The current land
redistribution exercise is causing such profound harm to
Zimbabwe's ability
to feed and support itself and to meet its obligations
regarding food
security for the SADC because it is fundamentally flawed. Key
decisions on
acquisitions and allocations are being made at local levels, by
interested
parties, without legal authority. This has to end.
Parliament
concentrated power and responsibility for land acquisitions
rather than set
up an independent authority, making the President
responsible as the
acquiring authority but allowing him to delegate his
responsibility to a
Minister. He has delegated it to the Minister of Lands,
Agriculture and Rural
Resettlement.
That Minister is required in law to apply his mind before
issuing each
preliminary notice of an intention to acquire any land, in every
case,
whether or not any objection is lodged, to have an assessment made of
the
amount of compensation that will be payable for improvements etc if
that
land is acquired
to apply his mind to any objection lodged
to
ensure it is reasonably necessary to acquire that particular land for
the
particular purpose at that particular time
and to satisfy the
Administrative Court of this.
He also must have funds allocated for the
acquisition, even if this is being
done in terms of a programme for land
resettlement and has only to pay 25%
now (with another 25% the next year, and
the balance within 5 years).
Before he can make decisions he has to know
the costs. He cannot stay within
his budget unless he knows what compensation
is payable for whatever he is
acquiring.
Although he does not have to
proceed in accordance with a land reform
programme, if he steps outside it,
he is obliged to pay in full for the land
and improvements and is obliged, by
law, to have enough money allocated for
that before he acquires the
land.
All the documents filed with the courts and the public statements
have
indicated that the current exercise is intended to be done in terms of
the
current land reform programme adopted by government in
mid-2001.
This is filed at the Supreme Court, and entitled "People
First", and has
been widely circulated and relied upon by the
authorities.
It is a 10-year plan, including the following critical
elements:
It recognises an economically essential strategic core of 6
million
hectares, which should not be affected by the current exercise.
It
is premised on a statement that 60% of commercial farm land is "not
merely
under-utilised but wholly unutilised", and in general aims to target
such
land.
Overall Targets are set for the different Natural Regions, with farm
sizes
for resettlement in each, and money to be budgeted for acquiring
and
resettling.
In accordance with long accepted rules it lays down
general criteria for
selection:
derelict land
underutilized
land
land under multiple ownership
foreign owned land
land near
communal lands
and gives guidelines for what should be exempt: plantations;
agro-industrial
properties; export processing zones, investment permit
holders, and those
protected by its bi-lateral investment agreements; church
and mission land;
approved conservancies.
Identification and acquisition
of suitable land is to be done over 5 years
2001-2005, together with
selection and allotment to settlers and settlement
of those settlers with the
resources to utilise the land over the same
period. The 5 years following
will be devoted to infrastructural
development.
If any objection to the
acquisition is noted, "No resettlement can take
place on this land until the
acquisition order has been confirmed by the
(Administrative)
Court."
Again, this requirement is both essential and logical.
If the
authorities do not satisfy the Administrative Court that it is
reasonably
necessary to acquire a particular piece of land, it must order
that it be
returned to the owner and other right holders. Settlers who
have
occupied the land before the Administrative Court has decided can
lose
everything including their crops in the ground, with no apparent right
to
compensation for their loss.
Financial Institutions responsible to
their depositors etc cannot provide
the necessary finance to settlers for
inputs when their right to occupy the
land is so tenuous, and settlers are
clearly reluctant to risk their own
resources.
The law and the
programme both require the Compensation Committee to look at
the valuator's
preliminary assessment, prepare its own estimate, notify
those affected,
consider any representations made, and then fix and notify
the compensation
payable, without delay, irrespective of whether any
objection is to be
heard.
For most farm enterprises, not even the valuator's preliminary
assessments
have been done. In some cases, trainees with tape measures have
recorded
outside measurements of buildings etc, but this is not sufficient to
meet
the laid-down compensation criteria. No reports have been received
of
estimates being sent yet by the Committee.
Despite the drought and
food shortages, the exercise has been expanded in
size and compressed in time
without formulating any new programme or having
the financial resources or
budget allocation either to pay existing right
holders whatever is due to
them or for the necessary equipment, inputs and
resettlement costs of the new
settlers. (Only Z$8 b. is to be provided for
some food crops only for all
farming sectors.)
For the reasons given, the new settlers cannot hope for
loans from financial
institutions.
What is happening is that the
various local committees who are making the
decisions on what to acquire are
also deciding the allocations, and often
are expecting to be special
beneficiaries themselves or are being strongly
influenced by those who
are.
As a result they are tending not to list the land which is
undeveloped,
unused and affordable to the State but to target the most
developed
enterprises, to take the whole area, or the best developed part of
the farm
if it is on more than one title deed.
The President re-stated
In Malaysia that farmers are not being driven off
the land and will each
retain a farm. If this principle, the law and the
programme criteria and
mechanisms were being properly applied, there could
be no justification for
the forcible evictions of farmers and farm workers
from homesteads that are
being threatened at present, particularly this long
weekend, by police or
settlers.
It is this interest by those carrying out the identification
exercise in
also allocating the land that is resulting in the threat of so
many farm
enterprises being closed down.
The law requires that every
application for a lease be considered by an
impartial and apolitical
Agricultural Land Settlement Board then the
Minister, but this is not
happening.
PRODUCTIVE LAND IS BEING ALLOCATED UNLAWFULLY, and not to the
landless poor.
Farmworker who were promised 20% of the land at Abuja are
not being
allocated this.
Only about 12 000 of those on the preliminary
lists of approved settlers
published before the presidential poll (est. 80
000) have been allocated
land, but it appears that almost all the commercial
farm land has been
allocated, with the maximum farm sizes not applied.
Traditional leaders have
reported no significant easing of the pressure in
communal lands. The
mistakes of earlier resettlements where people were
simply given land
without the means to utilise it fully are being repeated,
but now it is the
most productive land that is being targeted. When
this cake is eaten, only
crumbs will remain.
It is clear that an audit
by government ministers involved is not
sufficient.
The consequences
have already been felt. In Zimbabwe's current situation,
the consequence of
not rectifying this before the start of the coming season
will be deaths by
famine or HIV linked with malnutrition; and even before
the drought, it was
realised that the situation posed a threat to the
socio-economic stability of
the entire sub-region, and the continent at
large.
Zimbabwe, and
possibly its neighbours, will lose many more jobs and lives
unless
the
rule of law is restored, the costs and the budgets taken into account,
the
programme of first going to court for confirmation of acquisition
before
resettlement is restored acquisition orders are issued only for
whatever
part of the land it is reasonably necessary to acquire for its
utilisation
the necessary delisting is done.
The allocations are done
lawfully and publicly and with resources to use the
land.
The objective of
land reform is accepted by everyone. So is the need for it
to be implemented
in a transparent, fair, just and sustainable manner, in
the interest of all
the people of Zimbabwe, within the law and constitution
of Zimbabwe. The need
for land reform here can never excuse it being
conducted in a lawless or
violent way or for those conducting it to refuse
to be fully
accountable to its people, or ever tolerating
this.
Ends
Legal
Committee
ABC Australia
Posted: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 5:34
AEST
Mugabe brushes off western critics
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has denounced
Australian and other western criticism of his government as a racist campaign to
undermine his nation's independence.
In a speech quoted on national
television, President Mugabe has dismissed comments by leaders in Australia,
Britain, the United States and New Zealand by saying most of the people in those
countries are white.
He says they are leading the fight against the
completion of Zimbabwe's independence process that began in 1980 when he assumed
power.
Earlier this week, two senior US officials said the United States
did not consider President Mugabe the legitimate leader of Zimbabwe, and that
Washington was working with other governments to isolate him.
MSNBC
Malnutrition growing among Zimbabwe's
children
HARARE, Aug. 22 — Child malnutrition in
Zimbabwe threatens to rise in the months ahead as a severe food crisis grips the
southern African country, a senior U.N. official said on
Thursday.
Festo Kavishe, the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) official in Zimbabwe, said the agency
had launched a special programme to feed 600,000 children earlier this year, but
the number of needy was expected to rise in the months ahead.
''The situation is bad in terms of
those figures alone, but our expectation is that the situation will deteriorate
further as we move away from (the) harvest period (April/May)...and we may need
to help more children,'' Kavishe said.
Zimbabwe is at the centre of a devastating food crisis in southern Africa,
accounting for six million of the roughly 13 million people needing emergency
food aid in the region.
Under the
U.N.'s emergency food aid appeal for six southern African countries, UNICEF has
earmarked $8 million for Zimbabwe, including $5 million for the scheme to feed
children.
A UNICEF survey of 30
Zimbabwean districts in May found that an average six percent of children
suffered from acute malnutrition, with one southwestern district reporting 18
percent affected.
Kavishe said
President Robert Mugabe's controversial land reforms, seizing white-owned
commercial farms for blacks, may have contributed to the food shortages.
But he said the main factor was a
drought which has also hit other countries in the region.
''If you look at Zimbabwe's food
deficit of 1.8 million metric tonnes of cereals... you will see that the output
from the commercial sector is 500,000 tonnes and 1.3 million tonnes from the
small-scale sector,'' he said.
CHILDREN AT RISK
Kavishe said that as well as going
hungry, children were at risk of being forced into prostitution or being
sexually abused.
He said UNICEF was
working on collecting new figures on how many children would need help up to
next May.
But he denied that UNICEF
could face problems in running its food programmes around the country, where the
main opposition says its supporters are being denied food assistance by ruling
ZANU-PF supporters who have hijacked aid programmes.
''It's not a problem we have had
ourselves,'' Kavishe said.
Mugabe has
ordered 2,900 of the country's 4,500 white farmers to surrender their land to
black peasants, but most have ignored the August 8 deadline to quit their homes.
Around 200 white farmers, including two
South Africans, have been arrested since last week for defying eviction orders.
Mugabe, in power since 1980, says he is
seizing farms to reverse the legacy of British colonial rule, which left about
70 percent of the best land in the hands of a tiny white minority.
The Guardian
Militants Ignore Court In Zimbabwe
Thursday August 22, 2002 8:00 PM
BANKET, Zimbabwe (AP) - Although a court said white
Zimbabwean farmer Vince Schultz can stay on his land, ruling party militants
demanded Thursday he leave immediately and hand over the farm his family owned
for nearly a century to a prominent party leader.
Five young militants in green uniforms were posted at
the farm while Schultz was being harangued by militants inside the police
station in Banket, a farming center 55 miles northwest of Harare.
Schultz said the militants had warned they would
``bring back a battalion'' to remove him if he defied them.
``We would be given safe passage as long as we start
packing. I'm a quivering wreck. I want out before it kills me. I want to live
the rest of my life in peace,'' said Schultz, 57.
Neighbors have urged Schultz to stay on, fearing
militants will begin taking their farms if he relents.
It was a painful choice for Schultz and his wife,
Monica, 58.
``If they say I married a chicken, I can put up with
it. I have no intention of growing old by myself,'' she said.
The government's campaign to seize white-owned farms
has added to more than two years of political unrest, during which about 186
mostly opposition supporters have been killed. Among the dead are 11 white
farmers.
Since March 2000, the government has targeted 95
percent of white-owned land for confiscation and redistribution to blacks.
Critics say many prime farms have gone to
politicians, military and police officers and government cronies and not
landless blacks.
About 2,900 farmers were ordered to leave their land
by Aug. 9. About 60 percent defied the order, and the government arrested about
200 of them over the weekend.
The farmers, many contesting the legality of their
eviction orders, face up to two years in jail and a fine. Many were released on
bail terms prohibiting them from living on their land while awaiting trial over
the next few weeks.
Schultz said he contested his eviction in the Harare
High Court in June. The order was ruled invalid because the government did not
comply with its own land seizure laws.
After being arrested Sunday and detained in
overcrowded police cells for allegedly defying his eviction, he was released
after producing the court ruling.
But that did not stop the militants from demanding
his removal.
Bright Matonga, a prominent ruling party official and
former state television executive who now heads a state transport company, said
he had been allocated the 1,400-acre farm.
The militants insisted the High Court ruling was an
error. Joseph Chinotimba, a leader of veterans of the war that ended white rule
here two decades ago, told Schultz and police officers Thursday he did not
recognize the ruling.
There were no courts in the 1890s when white settlers
stole African land, he said, echoing President Robert Mugabe's claim the land
seizures were intended to correct colonial era imbalances in land ownership.
Schultz, a former miner, bought the farm at
independence in 1980 from his wife's parents, whose family settled there in
1919.
After two years of threats from militants and
settlers, he was forced to stop growing tobacco, wheat and beans but was allowed
to grow roses for export this year.
Schultz said he had noted government promises that
whites who only owned one small farm would not be stripped of their land. He
also offered to subdivide sections of the land to provide plots for black
settlers.
``We thought we were home and dry. We put everything
we had into the farm. It was going to be our pension. We made no other
provisions. We have nowhere to go,'' he said.
The land seizures and a drought are causing
widespread food shortages that relief groups say threaten half of Zimbabwe's
12.5 million people.
Before ``fast track'' seizures began two years ago
4,500 whites owned a third of Zimbabwe's farmland and 7 million blacks lived on
the rest. An estimated 350,000 black farm workers and their families live on the
white-owned land.
South African Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu
Buthelezi said Thursday he did not know of any white Zimbabwean farmers seeking
permission to move to South Africa.
``I am not aware there is a big deluge of people
inundating our country as a result of the Zimbabwe debacle,'' he said.
Schultz said the militants worked ``to soften us up
and make sure were go.'' Police once advised him to go into hiding for his own
safety.
``Twenty nine months of this is enough,'' he said.
ZIMBABWE NATIONAL SOCIETY
FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS
PVO 38/69
SPCA
Member Centres:
Bulawayo - Chegutu - Chinhoyi -
Chiredzi - Gweru - Harare - Hwange - Kadoma - Kwekwe - Marondera - Mashava
- Masvingo - Mutare - Zvishavane
22 AUGUST 2002
Most of you will be aware of what is taking place in Zimbabwe at
present with regard to the arrest and eviction of commercial farmers. Many
continue the legal battle to retain their homes but there is a steady stream of
those who have thrown in the towel and will be leaving Zimbabwe.
We had all hoped that the situation would not result in the
tense and sometimes violent confrontations which have resulted but now
realise that there will be no peaceful resolution to the land dispute.
Sadly, the manner in which the resettlement is being conducted
is causing much confusion - court rulings and the manner in which
the evictions are being carried out, vary from area to area and farms that
have been targeted include farms which have officially been delisted.
There appears to be many different 'authorities' who claim to be in
charge of the 'resettlement programme'.
Fortunately, Meryl and the Rescue Team still enjoy the full
support of the ZRP. Most fortunately as it transpires as I regret to
report that Meryl and Addmore were both assaulted on 21 August. Neither
sustained injury as they were pushed and shoved, threatened with a
sjambok and subjected to a verbal barrage of racial abuse by a mob more
than 40 strong, but were both obviously shaken and upset by the
encounter. They were most courageous and remained calm
throughout their ordeal. Despite a threat that their vehicle would be set
on fire if they ever returned, Addmore bravely went back to the scene
with a police constable to identify the culprits, but they were physically
prevented from making any arrests and the police Support Unit were
immediately called in and the perpetrators were finally arrested.
It has been a most harrowing time for all SPCA centres and I
commend all concerned for their commitment, courage and determination in
safeguarding as many animals as possible under such difficult conditions.
The Rescue Team have spent a great deal of time at Golden Acres
Stud near Marondera, which has been under siege for nearly a week.
War vets attempted to drive the more than 160 horses into the garden of the
homestead. Many of the mares are pregnant and two have given birth in the
yard.
On the team's first visit to the farm, the war vets had the
farm mechanic and his wife arrested and then told the police to also take Meryl,
Mark and Addmore to Goromonzi Police Station. Fortunately, the police
pointed out the authority of the ZNSPCA and that the team were fully
empowered to be in attendance.
When the team had ensured that the animals would all be fed
and watered, they were calling it a day when Mark overheard one of the war
vets issuing instructions to workers to barricade the female manager in her
house. Meryl sent Addmore to warn her and with no regard for his personal
safety he waited until she had loaded her dogs into her van and then walked in
front of her vehicle until she was off the premises. Whilst this was
happening the war vets instructed one of the workers to call her dogs off the
back of the van, knowing that if they jumped out she would stop and get out of
the vehicle. Fortunately, her pets stayed in the van.
The team continue to monitor the horses and Meryl continues to
negotiate for their proper care and exercise. The stud stallion, who
has been confined for the duration, has already broken out of one stable and is
most fractious.
On the way to Golden Acres, Meryl reported that they
witnessed more than 1000 head of cattle being loaded for slaughter,
including many heavily pregnant heifers and day old calves - she said it
was a most disturbing sight.
In between, the team finally managed to rescue two bewildered
Pekinese from their farm in the Matepatepa area, near Bindura. The owners
had not been able to return to the farm for some time but fortunately one of the
workers had continued to take great care of them and Meryl reported that the
delightful pair, 'Emily' and 'Lucy' were in excellent health when they were
reunited with their ecstatic owners.
On a further happier note, Meryl and I were extremely
privileged to meet some of the Blue Cross 2002 participants - Meryl attended the
start of the event, across from Mahenye at the lowest point in Zimbabwe on the
Save River, and 500Kms later, I met the valiant walkers and cyclists who made it
to the finish at the highest point at the top of Mount Nyangani. We
were overwhelmed by all those, both from here and abroad who were undeterred by
the situation here and determined to support the work of the Society so
generously. All who took part in this most arduous challenge are to be
soundly congratulated for their achievements, including Bernice, the
youngest participant to ever take part in the event and who is only
partially sighted, and the incredible 'Dot', the most senior
participant who valiantly completed the event with the aid of a sporty
'zimmer'.
I must also mention the dynamic Patricia Glynn of SAFM who took
part in the event and raised record sponsorship from all her young and old
listeners and fans, through many fund-raising events. It was an
absolute honour to hang her special Blue Cross medal around her neck.
We were all touched when she announced that she had been inspired by Meryl
Harrison and had taken part and raised the sponsorship in her
name.
Finally, on another positive note (and most fitting at this
time), we know you will be as thrilled as we are to learn that Meryl
is to be awarded the RSPCA Overseas Award for Gallantry. It is a most
deserving award for her unfailing dedication to animals and we sincerely thank
the RSPCA for bestowing this honour upon her.
Kind regards
Bernice
