via Farmer axed in new wave of farm invasions – NewsDay Zimbabwe July 22, 2014 by Tatenda Chitagu
AN indigenous farmer is reportedly battling for life at Masvingo General Hospital after he was struck with an axe on the head by suspected war veterans at the weekend in a new wave of farm invasions targeting black farm owners.
A second farmer’s car and house were torched in skirmishes that have left the Masvingo farming community shell shocked.
Mufaro Mukaro was initially admitted at Ndanga District Hospital on Sunday, but was later transferred to Masvingo General Hospital yesterday as his condition deteriorated.
He was reportedly rushed to the hospital with the axe still stuck in his head.
So critical is Mukaro’s condition that even his relatives are not being allowed to visit him except his wife.
Masvingo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Charity Mazula could not be reached for comment as her phone went unanswered. Sources said the 10 war veterans linked to the violent acts were arrested.
The case was reported under police case number RRB 2098509.
Tsaurai Lawrence Stemere (76), who owns Sundowns Farm, said he survived the brutal attack on Saturday, but his Nissan Twin Cab vehicle was reduced to a shell and his house was set ablaze by
the marauding war veterans.
Stemere lost property worth thousands of dollars, including his clothing and was only left with what he was wearing.
“I am lucky to be alive. We sped off after they barricaded the road with tree branches and started pelting us with stones,” he said.
“They then hit Mukaro with an axe in the head after smashing his car while he was inside.
“They were so heartless. Mukaro was then rushed to Ndanga Hospital and I went home.
“I found my farmhouse torched and my car reduced to ashes,” the visibly shaken Stemere told our sister paper Southern Eye yesterday.
Stemere said he bought the farm in 1995 before the government’s land reform programme and estimated that he lost property valued at $70 000 in the inferno.
Masvingo North MP Davis Marapira, who is also Agriculture deputy minister, confirmed the disturbances and said it was against government policy to invade black-owned farms.
“That is very illegal to occupy black-owned farms. It is against the laws of the country,” he said.
“The invaders are taking the law into their own hands.
“Right now they left a farmer critically injured and another without his property.
“We do not encourage that.”
The ex-fighters allegedly accused the black owners of underutilising their land.
Late last year, anti-riot police evicted around 300 land invaders from the same farms and torched their shacks.
War veteran Ruben Chikono has since been dragged to the Masvingo Magistrates’ Court charged with inciting the former combatants to invade the farms. His case is still pending.
Some of the farms that have been invaded include Nidspruit, Potyo Farm, Thankerton Farm, Chigumedhe, Mudzikisi, Chipare, Pakai and Mukuta.
Similar cases have been reported in Goromonzi, just outside Harare.
COMMENTS
zim dog eat zim dog
Seems some are more indigenous than others?
War vets accuse black farmers of being unproductive? Wow. Kettle, pot, black.
How racist is this comment: Zanu PF one day you will answer for your evilness.
Masvingo North MP Davis Marapira, who is also Agriculture deputy minister, confirmed the disturbances and said it was against government policy to invade black-owned farms.
“That is very illegal to occupy black-owned farms. It is against the laws of the country,” he said
@Phys – by implication the Agriculture deputy minister is saying that it is legal to invade farms owned by non-Blacks!! These people are really messed up. So much for the so-called superior education system we have.
P.S. “It is against the laws of this country.”
What laws you band of thugs?????
Now it’s black against black, I enjoy this circus.
That’s what happens when you deliberately ignore and destroy The Rule of Law.
As they say, “When thieves fall out . . . “
You are 100% right
Go on you idiots beat the c..p out of each other and get a taste of how it feels
Peter tosh and DustBug – remember what happened in 1981 when the Ndebeles were being killed, some of our white compatriots were laughing and saying “it’s a black on black violence, let them kill each other”; little knowing that ZPF is an equal opportunity abuser and some of our Shona compatriots were saying “vachawamamisa mandebere”. Then the farm invasions followed and the whites bore the brunt of the killings and abuse; the Ndebeles re-lived the pain – then came the infamous 2008 elections, now the violence was more pronounced in Mashonaland. Zimbabweans by now should learn to feel for one another. Remember the story of the farmer’s wife who bought some mouse trap and the chicken, the pig, the snake and the cow were all laughing at the mouse that he will not see another daylight. Lo and behold that evening the snake was caught up in the mouse trap. While he was wriggling the farmer’s wife ran toward him thinking it was the mouse that had been caught. The snake before his demise bit the farmer’s wife who ended up with a high fever necessitating the farmer to kill the chicken to make soup for his wife. Within a day or two neighbours were gathering to visit the farmer’s wife who was getting worse by the hour. The farmer had to slaughter the pig to feed them. The wife died a day after and the cow had to be slaughtered. The moral of the story “do not laugh at your neighbours when calamity visits them. As Zimbabweans, we are in this together.
“…..Masvingo North MP Davis Marapira, who is also Agriculture deputy minister, confirmed the disturbances and said it was against government policy to invade black-owned farms…..”
Otherwise invasion is legal?
And they call themselves a government?
No wonder we are the laughing stalk of the world.
Imbavha chete
bob apererwa,ko ngaasiye nhai.