The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.
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Monday, 22 October, 2001, 16:30 GMT 17:30 UK
Zimbabweans flee SA mob
A homeless Zimbabwean with possessions
Many Zimbabweans did not even get the chance to gather their possessions
Mobs of South African youths have gone on the rampage near Johannesburg, torching shacks belonging to immigrant workers from Zimbabwe.


There were mobs of youths running around the township trying to find Zimbabweans

South African journalist Mark Kluzner
Police again moved in to restore calm to the Zandspruit settlement on Monday, after using rubber bullets to disperse the violent mob over the weekend.

Eyewitnesses said six people were injured and more than 100 shacks destroyed during the clashes.

Trouble has been brewing since the murders last month of two South Africans, both blamed on Zimbabweans.

Correspondents also say there is rising resentment of immigrant workers, who are prepared to work longer hours for less pay than their South African colleagues.

'Trashed and looted'

The South African residents of Zandspruit decided at a community meeting on Sunday to expel the foreigners and destroy their homes.

Homeless Zimbabwean
Zimbabwean workers are resented for working longer hours for less money
A South African television journalist, Mark Kluzner, witnessed the rioting.

"What we saw were shacks that had been set alight, places had been completely trashed and looted," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

"There were mobs of youths running around the township trying to find Zimbabweans who they claim are criminals in the community," he added.

Mr Kluzner also said the mob targeted Zimbabweans who were married to South Africans and had lived in the country for years.

Reports said most Zimbabweans had now abandoned their possessions and fled the settlement.

Local police spokeswoman Terry-Ann Booyse told the AFP news agency they were now taking measures to look after the victims.

"Today we are trying to find them food and shelter and get them settled. We are concentrating on disaster management," she was quoted as saying.

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Monday, 22 October, 2001, 12:08 GMT 13:08 UK
Zimbabweans attacked at SA camp

South African residents at a settlement near Johannesburg have set on fire
some shacks which belong to residents from Zimbabwe.

Police fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds at the settlement, which is
home to around 50,000 people.

The attacks follow the destruction of more than 100 Zimbabwean shacks at the
weekend.

The South African residents decided at a community meeting on Sunday to
expel the foreigners and destroy their homes.

They say the Zimbabweans have been involved in violent crime and want them
to go back to their own country.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

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Chinhoyi - Appeal for Help

The 23 Chinhoyi farmers, who were arrested for trying to help a fellow
farmer who was barricaded into his home with war veterans trying to break
the door down, need help. As you will probably know, the farmers were also
imprisoned, had their heads shaven and were denied bail for 3 weeks. Of
those 23 men, more than half were arrested when they called at the police
station to offer assistance and blankets to their colleagues. These men were
finally granted a ridiculously high bail and will be back in the dock on the
28th of October.

Their wives are desperately trying to rise Z$2 million to cover their legal
costs. One Chinhoyi woman, whose farm, home and life was completely trashed
by marauding looters two months ago wrote an appeal recently. Her name is
Mandy and she said: "We have been refugees for 2 months now and it seems
like years... This is the first time we haven't grown a crop and I wake up
every morning, leap out of bed and then realise... you are not farming."
Mandy and her husband lost everything except one photograph and a serviette
ring when their home was destroyed. Mandy is still in Zimbabwe, waiting to
find out if she and her husband will be allowed to farm again, waiting to
find out if they will be allowed back onto their own land.

She is desperately trying to raise money towards the legal fees of her 23
friends and neighbours. If you would like to help, offer moral support or
find out more, please contact her at:

mailto:237760@ecoweb.co.zw
<mailto:237760@ecoweb.co.zw  > or;

Send money to:

Att: Mrs M. Taylor-Freeme,
"Angwa Trust No 2 Account"
P/Bag 7516,
Chinhoyi.

Thanks for reading this message
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Zimbabwe Mirror

BA launches discount promotion on Harare-London route
Business Reporter

THE British Airways (BA) has launched a discount promotion for passengers
travelling between Harare and London, with first class fares going down by
19 percent while the cost of the “club world ticket” dropped by 23 percent.

The promotion, which applies only to direct travellers between Harare and
London, will last until November. BA’s marketing co-ordinator, Clare
Wingfield, said the new discounted fare structure covers all cabin classes,
with a “special fare available in world traveller for only this limited
period”. She added: “Those who need to travel to the United Kingdom or who
wish to use London as the hub for their onward journey can appreciate all
the pleasures and benefits of the world’s favourite airline while enjoying
very real savings.” Wingfield said the discounts were initiated after
realising the financial difficulties being experienced by Zimbabweans who
wish to travel abroad.

Meanwhile, the BA service delivery manager at the Harare International
airport, Morag Wright, has expressed satisfaction over the recently
installed security system at the airport following terrorist attacks at the
World Trade Centre in New York on September 11. “The safety of our
passengers is always our highest priority and we are pleased with the new
security measures which the Civil Aviation Authority has introduced, said
Wright.

On its part, the BA is currently reviewing a range of possible enhancements
to its security, including new computer software capable of compiling a
passenger “blacklist”, and installation of cameras on board. Another
computer software is also currently being developed to “name-trap” suspected
passengers, or people travelling under an alias, on an electronic blacklist
at check-in anywhere in the world.

Closed circuit television has already been trailed on one BA aircraft.

“The cameras could prove to be a useful tool in informing flight crew of
what is happening in the cabin of a very large aircraft,” said Wingfield. A
new range of security measures have also been put in place including a ban
on sharp objects in the aircraft cabin, the locking of cockpit doors and
additional searches of hand luggage and passengers before boarding. BA’s
director of safety, security and environment, David Hyde, said the airline
spends around US$100 million a year on its worldwide security operations.
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United States Department of State

22 October 2001
The Face of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe
(Up to 30 percent of population infected) (1470)
By David Pitts
Washington File Staff Correspondent

Harare, Zimbabwe - Ohias Mashinda is 36 years old. He is one of more
than three million Zimbabweans believed to be infected with HIV/AIDS.
Despite his frailty, he has somehow made his way from the bush to a
public hospital in Chitungwiza, a sprawling township (called a high
density area in this country) about 20 miles outside the capital city.
If he is lucky, he will be one of the few to receive hospice care.
There are no drugs to treat AIDS itself and Ohias has little money for
drugs to relieve his symptoms. He doesn't even have money for
transportation to get back home.

"About 70 percent of the people who come to the hospital have
HIV/AIDS," says Brenda Poulton, a 68-year old nurse from Ireland who
came to what was then Southern Rhodesia in 1955. She works closely --
and with the kind of easy humor that comes from mutual respect -- with
Simplisius Ngwerume, a native Zimbabwean and social worker. He is
coordinator of care in Chitungwiza for the Island Hospice Service, the
first hospice in all of Africa. It opened in 1979 - serving mostly
cancer patients then. Now, it cares overwhelmingly for people who will
die from AIDS. Most days, the two old friends do what Poulton calls a
"ward round to pick up patients who have come to the hospital to die
whose last days might be made more comfortable by hospice care."

In her small, cramped office at the hospital, Poulton and Ngwerume
interview a succession of very sick people who have come here for help
-- any kind of help. All who come on this day have never been tested
for HIV and, although knowledgeable about the disease, will not admit
they have it. Andrew is a 35-year old teacher, who is so sick he has
not taught school in months. "This is the future of Zimbabwe -- dying
before your eyes -- a young professional, the kind of person we cannot
afford to lose," says Ngwerume. "Families already destitute are losing
breadwinners every day. Most of the people we see are between 21 and
48 years old," he adds. Poulton and Ngwerume estimate that here in
Chitungwiza it takes about two years for HIV infection to progress to
full-blown AIDS and soon thereafter, death.

According to official figures, about 8,000 people are dying from AIDS
each month. The population of the country is 12 million. Andrew says
he has trouble breathing and his joints are very painful "He likely
has TB," says Poulton, "one of the most serious opportunistic
infections we see." According to U.S. sources, Zimbabwe has the
highest estimated tuberculosis rate in the world -- annually more than
500 cases per 100,000 persons. It is one of the most serious of the
opportunistic infections that affects people who are immunosuppressed
because of HIV. It also makes many family members afraid to help their
loved ones who are sick because they fear being infected with TB.

Later in the day, Poulton and Ngwerume climb into a vehicle to visit
hospice patients in and around Chitungwiza. Island Hospice offers care
where people live, partly because it doesn't have the funds for a
central facility. The first stop is the home -- really the room -- of
Matthias, whose wife is so sick she can barely move. She lies on a
piece of cloth in a tiny room that has no bed and just one chair. The
home has no facilities, not even running water, although there is a
tap outside not far away. Matthias says there is no one to care for
his wife while he is at work. He earns about 2,000 Zimbabwean dollars
a month working fulltime -- the equivalent of about two U.S. dollars a
week. That would buy two boxes of cereal at a store, for example.

"We have drugs to treat the pain," says Poulton, "but we don't always
know whether the pain is from the disease or from hunger." In the
center of the room where Matthias' wife lies too weak to move is a
small bucket containing a towel, rubber gloves, a bar of Lifebuoy soap
and other needed items. On the side of the bucket is a label -- "from
the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)" -- evidence
that this help at least from the people of the United States has
filtered down directly to Zimbabweans who desperately need it. Poulton
has a number of these buckets in her office back at the hospital --
ready to give to whoever needs them. It is a measure of the shortage
of even basic essentials in Chitungwiza that she asks families to
return the buckets with whatever is left in them when they are no
longer needed -- in effect, when the patient dies.

The USAID office in Harare says that the international assistance
being offered can scarcely keep up with the scale of the epidemic even
though much of it is targeted at fighting HIV/AIDS. Two-thirds of all
U.S. assistance to this country is directed at combating the disease.
But the statistics continue to paint a grim picture of a nation facing
a dire threat. According to USAID figures, the crude death rate in
Zimbabwe will be more than 200 percent higher in 2005 than it was in
1990. Zimbabwean life expectancy is expected to decline to 35 years by
2010, compared with 66 years in 1997. By 2005, there will be a
predicted one million AIDS orphans, one twelfth of the population. By
2015, there will be 20 percent fewer people alive in Zimbabwe than
there are today. Statistics like these, say USAID officials on the
ground here, indicate that HIV/AIDS is not just a health story. It is
a threat to the country's existence as a functioning society.

In the last few years, USAID has refocused its effort in fighting AIDS
in Zimbabwe. As a result of the various education campaigns, there is
now "near universal awareness," of HIV/AIDS and what causes it, the
agency says. But that has not translated into behavior change. So the
emphasis now is on behavior modification, particularly expanding the
number of voluntary HIV counseling and testing centers and broadening
the availability of condoms. "But without the drugs to treat AIDS,"
says Ngwerume, "many people don't see the reason for getting tested.
They are afraid. Getting men to use condoms also is difficult. This is
a male dominated culture," he adds.

"The HIV epidemic is intimately connected to the poverty of the
country as well," says Dr. Michael St. Louis, director of the Harare
office of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a U.S. federal agency
based in Atlanta, Georgia. "There is a lack of infrastructure and
basic equipment," he says. "The health system's capacity to respond is
very limited. We are mainly providing technical assistance to help
improve the services that are available." CDC, which has a large
program here, works closely with the Zimbabwean Ministry of Health and
Child Welfare as well as USAID and other donor agencies. A major focus
is on reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

In general, CDC's effort is focused in three major areas: prevention;
care and treatment; and infrastructure development. "For example, as
far as TB is concerned, there is often a failure to diagnose because
of the inadequacy of the equipment," St. Louis says. "We are trying to
remedy that as well as strengthen laboratory procedures in general.
Also, there is a lack of good information, which we are trying to
rectify. We also want to make the HIV rapid test more widely available
because the older tests take too long and that's a problem in a
country like Zimbabwe," he adds.

At the Island Hospice, Poulton and Ngwerume and others working
directly with people living and dying with AIDS stress the need for
basic supplies and drugs. "Even a bar of soap to keep clean can make a
difference," they say. Karla Lamadora, an American and director of the
Island Hospice program, says, "We don't charge for our services
because our patients are very poor. We rely on charitable donations.
There is a huge tragedy going on here. People can't talk about the
loss. So many families are affected and there are so many funerals."

Some help is coming from sister hospices in New York State and also
from the U.S.-based Foundation for Hospice in SubSaharan Africa,
Lamadora says. "They have sent us large packages of vitamins," for
example. "In a country, where lack of nutrition is everywhere, even
basic vitamins are making a difference. What we are trying to do is
alleviate the suffering and make our patients as comfortable as
possible. With the resources we have, this is all we can do."

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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IPI adds Zimbabwe to media 'watch list,' attacks situation in South Korea

By freedomforum.org staff

10.22.01

Zimbabwe has been added to the media "watch list" of the Vienna-based International Press Institute, joining South Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka and Venezuela, all "countries that appear to be moving towards restricting press freedom."

The action was taken by the IPI executive board at a meeting in Paris on Oct. 20. In its announcement, IPI focused most attention on the media situation in South Korea, where "a politically motivated tax probe has led to the indictment of 13 media owners for tax evasion and embezzlement."

IPI claimed that "the arrest and detention of the newspaper owners were undertaken as a means of suppressing and intimidating the media." It called on the South Korean government to "call a halt to its attempts to infringe the editorial independence of the critical media," and "refrain from applying financial pressure on the management of the media."

IPI Director Johann P. Fritz said, "The prosecution authorities recently demanded a prison term of seven years in the case of the president of the Chosun Ilbo, Bang Sang-hoon. This provides further evidence that the present prosecutions, under President Kim Dae-jung's control, are an attempt to suppress and intimidate the media."

"The judiciary should act fairly and equitably when deciding the cases of those indicted, particularly with the three media owners currently in detention. In addition, the judiciary should take into consideration such important factors as the international principles of freedom of the press and the government's obvious utilization of a tax investigation to suppress freedom of expression. IPI simply does not understand why the three media owners were not given bail and demands that they should be immediately released," Fritz said.

In a further statement about the Korean situation, IPI Chairman Hugo Buetler, editor in chief of the Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung, said, "In recognition of the courage shown by IPI Vice Chairman Bang Sang-hoon, IPI has decided to keep him not only as a board member but also as the vice chairman of the IPI, despite the fact that his term ends next year at the IPI general assembly. The IPI Board unanimously agreed to continue their co-ordinated efforts in every possible way until the Korean media crisis is resolved."

In adding Zimbabwe to the "watch list," IPI said it "is deeply concerned at attempts to extinguish press freedom in the country against a background of government support for this activity and reluctance to prosecute offenders, restrictions imposed, or contemplated, by the government on the media, and the breakdown of the rule of law."

Regarding the state of press freedom in Russia, the executive board concluded that the country continues to be an extremely dangerous place for journalists to work. Several violent attacks and threats against journalists have been reported recently.

"Press freedom is being eroded in Russia," IPI said. "Restrictions in Chechnya continue to prevent journalists from reporting the news, while the regional media suffer from threats to withdraw economic support which in turn encourages self-censorship."

Sri Lanka was also kept on the list. "Although a recent relaxation of the censorship rules provides a measure of hope, the government still continues to play the potentially dangerous game of branding some journalists 'traitors,' IPI reported. "The behavior of the government towards the media ebbs and flows with its successes in the fight against [guerrilla forces] and, until a resolution is found to this conflict, it is unlikely to stop."

Concerning Venezuela, the executive board also agreed that the country should be kept on the list. "Relations between President Hugo Chávez and the media have continued to deteriorate," the board statement noted. It added that a decision of the Venezuelan supreme court had "opened the door for the judiciary, largely dominated by Chávez supporters, to punish the media for criticism of the president."

IPI also said that "attacks on press freedom in sub-Saharan Africa, in particular, appear to be contagious and ... countries eagerly adopt the media restrictions imposed by others."

IPI describes its "watch list" as "a mechanism to detect and document regressive tendencies." The list is evaluated twice a year by the executive board.
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Comment from The Los Angeles Times, 21 October

Zimbabwe Tyranny Grows

While the world's attention is elsewhere, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe hopes to extend his dictatorship with a return to socialism, inviting business owners who oppose his policies "to pack up and go." His government is taking farms from white owners and violently intimidating credible political opponents eager to get rid of him in next April's presidential election. He has broken promises he made in Nigeria last month during a meeting of Commonwealth leaders to stop seizing land illegally and end political violence aimed at the Movement for Democratic Change, the opposition party.

Commonwealth heads of state were scheduled to meet again this month, but that was postponed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. U.S. pressure is also off Mugabe. Congress postponed action on a human rights bill that threatens to impose travel restrictions and other sanctions against Zimbabwe. The greatest pressure now comes from within Zimbabwe. Mugabe, 77, faces the worst economic crisis since he led the country to independence from British colonial rule in 1980. There is no bread, cooking oil or margarine in the capital of Harare. Gas costs 70% more than a year ago because of inflation and government interference. Unemployment, estimated at 60%, rises as jobs disappear in manufacturing, tourism and commercial farming. Agriculture, the mainstay of the economy, continues to lose ground as Mugabe's supporters interrupt the planting season and invade white-owned commercial farms without knowing how to manage cows or the chief crops.

The president has painted his anti-white crusade as an attempt to redistribute prime farmland, held largely by the white minority, to thousands of black families. His supporters burn people off their farms and take their land without paying for it, a corrupt attempt to win more black votes for Mugabe. White farmers aren't the government's only victims. The president's men have beaten, tortured and killed supporters of the opposition party, silenced independent journalists and ejected a team of American observers preparing to monitor the run-up to the April election. Who can stop Mugabe? U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been asked by an international human rights group to appoint a special envoy to help the Zimbabwe government conduct a free and fair election. The United Nations must make room on its crowded priority list for Zimbabwe. Unwatched and unsanctioned, Robert Mugabe may steal another six-year term, which would promise more misery for Zimbabwe.
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NSSA sues Chiyangwa over $12 million debt

10/22/01 9:04:06 AM (GMT +2)

By Columbus Mavhunga

Flamboyant Harare businessman and Member of Parliament for Chinhoyi, Phillip Chiyangwa is in serious trouble.

The National Social Security Authority (NSSA) internal auditors have recommended that immediate legal action to recover more than $12 million be instituted against Midiron Investments Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of his Native Investments Africa Group.

Documents made available to The Daily News show that last year, NSSA sought the services of Coghlan & Welsh Legal Practitioners to recover from Chiyangwa an initial amount of $2 294 600,31.

However, Chiyangwa wrote to Amod Takawira, NSSA’s acting general manager, acknowledging the debt. He also promised to repay the debt within a reasonable period of time.

Two months ago, Chiyangwa announced that he had bought a $65 million Bentley limousine, when the city was still abuzz with news that he had wrecked his $20 million Mercedes Benz S600.

In a letter to Takawira, Chiyangwa wrote: “It is imperative to bring to your attention that we are in the process of restructuring the aforesaid company’s finances like we did with Crittall Hope, in which we did sign an acknowledgement of debt and effected payment to you.

“Midiron Enterprises need to enter into the same agreement with you to avoid the displacement and disruptive nature this will have on the plans to a turn-around should the warrant of execution be executed.”

Takawira forwarded the letter to Stanley Kuodza, the Bulawayo regional manager, with a strict instruction, which reads: “Hold no action must be taken on this letter.”

Kuodza re-directed Chiyangwa’s letter to a Mr Madzvimbo, NSSA’s principal debt management officer, who subsequently wrote a letter to Coghlan & Welsh Legal Practitioners instructing them to stop all legal proceedings against Midiron.

According to NSSA’s latest internal audit report, Midiron has managed to pay a paltry $142 402,23 as of June 2001 out of an accrued debt which currently stands at a staggering $12 011 035,48.

In the report, the auditors said: “The regional manager should closely monitor progress on this and other cases to ensure the effective and timeous collection of high value outstanding amounts.

“It is further recommended that the manager should ask the senior compliance inspectors in charge of legal cases to prepare periodic reports on the progress made on all cases referred for debt collection to enable assessment of effectiveness and efficiency of the debt collectors.”

On noticing that no action was being taken to offset the Midiron debt,
Maxwell Pfachi, NSSA’s senior compliance officer, early this year wrote to the Bulawayo principal debt management officer advising him that the issue of Chiyangwa’s debt had to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

At that time, the debt was about $2,5 million.
Pfachi said: “I am no longer very comfortable keeping this file without any meaningful action in trying to recover the outstanding and overdue amount.

“Whilst we have been able to freeze all litigation, we have not been able to come up with better ways of recovering this debt and, furthermore, be able to safeguard NSSA’s interest.”

In a bid to have the debt recovered timeously, Pfachi proposed that lawyers Coghlan and Welsh be re-engaged.

He also suggested that the services of the NSSA legal adviser be sought forthwith.

Pfachi’s letter reads in part: “I hereby propose that we notify the regional manager on this particular case so that he can liaise with head office, in particular the acting general manager, so that discussions can be started at that level with Native Investments.

“Currently this debtor, though still employing, is not making any payments on current contributions and the debt could have further increased.”

Contacted for comment, Takawira referred all questions to Kuodza, who could not be reached despite repeated efforts.

Chiyangwa yesterday disowned Midiron, saying it ceased to be his company two years ago.

However, legal documents reveal that he signed an acknowledgement of debt form on 17 October 2000.

Chiyangwa said: “There is my name in that agreement because I was assisting the owners who had financial problems.

Midiron to me is dead and it has nothing to do with me.

Everyone has debts. Why do you want to act like angels? Why is it that everything that involves Chiyangwa has drawn a lot of interest?

What is so special about Chiyangwa owing NSSA $2 million? Is that money?

“I have over $100 million in my bank accounts.”

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Human rights activist says State can now be sued for sponsoring violence

10/22/01 7:39:14 AM (GMT +2)

Staff Reporter

BRIAN Kagoro, a lawyer and human rights activist, says Zimbabwean citizens now have grounds to sue the government for the violence that preceded the Abuja Agreement signed in Nigeria on 6 September.

He said under the Agreement, the government had conceded it had perpetrated violence.

Kagoro was presenting a paper titled “Can Judas be brought back to the last Supper?” at a recent meeting organised by the Zimbabwe Liberators Platform in Harare.

“In light of what our President said at the opening of the Pungwe Dam and what other ministers said before Abuja, the government has imprisoned itself,” said Kagoro. “Civil society and citizens can now arrest the government for the lawlessness and violence that happened before Abuja.

“Before the Abuja Agreement, we were not aware that the government was aware of the rule of law. But evictions of land invaders by government and its call to stop more invasions, as stipulated in the Agreement, are a key point . . .”

Last year, war veterans and Zanu PF supporters perpetrated violence and invaded commercial farms after people rejected a government-sponsored draft constitution in a referendum.

The government refused to send the police and army to quell the violence saying it was a “demonstration” by landless people.

Following immense international pressure, Zimbabwe signed the Abuja
Agreement with the British government last month, and undertook to restore the rule of law.

In return, the British promised to pay compensation to farmers whose farms would have been acquired under resettlement programme.

Kagoro said there were other issues, not related to the land problem, which needed to be solved if the crisis in Zimbabwe was to end.

“The legacy of impunity which Ian Smith and the incumbent (President Mugabe) benefited from has to be addressed,” said Kagoro. “Gukurahundi massacres, the disappearance of Rashiwe Guzha, the shooting of Patrick Kombayi and the looting of State coffers by unidentified culprits who are yet to be prosecuted that has nothing to do with land, but the law.

“At least in Abuja, the government apologised, so something has to be done. Even if it is a deaf government, let’s do something so that if posterity is to blame us it will not be about silence,” he said.

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Farm invasions cost $620m in Mash East

10/22/01 7:46:42 AM (GMT +2)

Staff Reporter

The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) on Friday said that about $620 million had been lost to the agricultural sector because of the violence and disruptions by farm invaders in the Mashonaland East province.

In a statement, the CFU said the province had become the most turbulent of the eight administrative provinces.

“In Hwedza district alone,” the CFU said, “31 out of 35 farms are no longer operating and over 1 590 farm workers have lost their Iivelihood, affecting approximately 7 950 people. In the adjoining Wenimbe Valley 14 out of 21 farms surveyed had labour disruptions, compromising tobacco earnings in excess of US$2,5 million (about Z$137,5 million at the official exchange rate).”

In the Ruzawi River valley south east of Marondera, 20 of the 42 farms surveyed recently were experiencing some form of work stoppage, the CFU said.

On 4 October, High Court judge, Justice Moses Chinhengo, granted a relief order to five Ruzawi farmers, upholding their right to continue farming on Eirene, Uitkyk, Safari, Munemo and Bonne Chance farms.

The order was served on the Zimbabwe Republic Police in Marondera on 9 October. It instructed Augustine Chihuri, the Commissioner of Police, the officer-in-charge of the ZRP in Marondera, David Karimanzira, the provincial governor, district administrators, and war veterans to curb lawlessness and allow farmers to operate freely. Last weekend, five workers were brutally assaulted by a group of about 60 invaders on Uitkyk Farm and violence was reported on two adjacent farms, Eirene and Bonne Chance.

The CFU said a pregnant woman was repeatedly kicked in the stomach until she fell and vomited. Seven other workers were severely beaten up.

The CFU said: “Marondera police are yet to make arrests despite the assailants being identified as resident on the farm.”

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