White farmers speak of exile
MARONDERA—When she woke up on Tuesday to the
misery of discovering that Robert Mugabe had scraped through, Lesley Hacking
reached for the emigration forms to Australia.
She was not alone in her desire to escape. Friends and neighbours from around
the lush farming lands of Maro-ndera stood in subdued knots, heads bowed as if
they were mourning a bereavement. Some told you they were: the death of the
white farming community after five generations.
They kept staring at the newspaper headlines, willing it to be a mistake.
Most, like this 39-year-old farmer’s wife, had gone to bed believing that
Zimbabwe’s opposition party which they supported at their peril had triumphed.
“Imagine your worst nightmare and you wake up to find real life is even worse.
Well that gives you some idea how the white farming community feels right now.
For us it’s the end,” she said.
Her husband, ‘Ox’ Hacking, and Elka, 20, the eldest of their three daughters,
have only recently been on a reconnaissance mission to Australia to see if the
family could begin a new life there. “We were already sick of the harassment and
the intimidation. After this result I am ready to pack my bags right now. We
feel we have been hit in the face again,” Mrs Hacking said. Last week she was
manning the radio communications in the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) office
in a barricaded shopping precinct on the outskirts of Marondera.
The walkie-talkie is the farmers’ first and only line of defence if, as many
predict, there are more invasions. The dread is that the so-called war veterans,
still occupying her land and many other properties in this region, may decide to
celebrate Zanu PF’s unexpected success with another bout of blood-letting. Every
few minutes another neighbour appears in the shuttered CFU office, shaking their
heads with dejection as much as disbelief. There were occasional bouts of morbid
humour among the older residents, goading each other over who would be last to
leave so they can turn out the lights. ‘Ox’ Hacking, 42, says: “I have invested
my whole life in this farm and it will be the most indescribable wrench to just
walk away with a bag in your hand.” The harsh economic reality, he concedes, is
that no one is going to buy property in Zimbabwe right now. His best option,
should he leave, is to try to lease the 1 300-acre spread to one of the
dwindling band of young farm managers anxious to run their own business. If
there is to be land redistribution, then Hacking sides with those who argue that
Britain should pay the farmers directly, leaving the money in foreign banks so
that they can start again.
“The hard equation is just how far down do you have to go to try to build a
new life. “Yet you cannot keep living in hell, even if it is beautiful and you
were born here,” he said. His politics is not President Mugabe’s, though he
believes that events of the past week mean all sides have to learn to live with
the new reality. He sides with key figures in the CFU who point out that this is
the first real attempt at democracy for nearly 40 years, not just since
independence. As well as counselling his wife and daughters as to their next
move, his farm manager, Tony Havercroft, 28, is debating his future too. His
father-in-law wants him to take over his farm in Virginia.
Attractive though that sounds, the property is a stone’s throw from where
David Stevens was murdered and where the so-called veterans still have their
headquarters. Haver-croft, who came from Scunthorpe with his parents when he was
a child, is troubled about the safety of his wife Elaine, 21, who is expecting
their second child at Christmas.
There is an entire community here who are today seriously debating whether to
give up what is an enviable lifestyle for the uncertainty of exile.—The
Times.
On Zimbabwe Farms, Push Now Comes to Shove
LA Times - Saturday, July 1, 2000
BINDURA, Zimbabwe
Gradually, the
squatters calmed down and most left, returning to their home regions for last
weekend's parliamentary election. Now the crowds are back to rejoin the
occupation of Conradie's and other farms.
"I would like them to move
off, so we can get on with our lives," said Conradie, who grows tobacco, maize,
wheat and soybean on more than 2,500 acres of land about 50 miles north of
Harare, the capital. "They've made their stand. . . . But it is time they go
home now."
This is not likely to happen any time soon. The government
of President Robert Mugabe has sanctioned the occupation of hundreds of
white-owned farms by supporters and black veterans of the 1970s war of
liberation, arguing that the squatters are demonstrating for much-needed land
reform. The issue was the central campaign theme for Mugabe's Zimbabwe African
National Union-Patriotic Front, or ZANU-PF, with the president promising
supporters more confiscations and more land after the election.
Largely
thanks to rural voters, ZANU-PF won a majority in the parliament in voting last
weekend, despite a significant showing by the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change, or MDC. Now, analysts say, Mugabe will have to expedite the
redistribution of land or risk a violent backlash. The farm invaders have no
intention of going home.
"He has painted himself into a corner over the
land," said Iden Wetherell, assistant editor of the Zimbabwe Independent
newspaper and a respected political commentator. "He has unleashed the war
veterans, who are going to be difficult to rein in."
In the run-up to
the election, the government designated for resettlement 804 commercial farms,
which officials at the Harare-based Commercial Farmers' Union estimate account
for about $180 million of tobacco and other crops a year. The farmers, who will
receive no compensation for their land, have until Sunday to object to the
acquisition of their property. About 600 landowners are expected to appeal,
according to farming officials.
"I will object," said James Sinclair,
who farms tobacco, cattle, pigs and maize on 5,680 acres that have been in his
family since the 1930s. The farm "is my sole livelihood. It's the sole
livelihood of my wife, my son and his wife, and the 70 families who live [and
work] on the property. It contributes to Zimbabwe's foreign exchange. We do not
feel it is in the interest of the government to resettle it."
Farming
officials say they hope that the land acquisition plan, which was made possible
by a constitutional change pushed through the previous parliament, will be
revoked because of the appeals. That way they can avoid a legal wrangle.
"We don't want to take it to court," said Jerry Grant, deputy director
of the farmers union. "We don't want to be seen as obstructing the government."
They may have no choice. War veterans and ruling party supporters, who
have occupied about 1,000 white-owned commercial farms since February, insist
that they will not leave before being given what they believe rightly belongs to
them.
The squatters argue that white colonists, whose descendants
account for less than 1% of Zimbabwe's 12 million people, stole the land from
indigenous blacks more than a century ago. Now, the squatters want it back.
"We are going to continue to occupy the land because it has nothing to
do with the election," said Agrippa Gava, executive director of the Zimbabwean
National Liberation War Veterans Assn. "The land belongs to us. The foreigners
should not own land here. There is no black Zimbabwean who owns land in England.
Why should any European own land here?"
'Easy Pickings' for
Opportunists
Eliah Muwengwa, a war veteran squatting at a preschool
on Conradie's land that the white farmer had built for his workers' children,
says he will remain there until he is allocated property to grow maize and other
crops.
"He can't tell me to leave," said Muwengwa, 45. "My orders have
to come from my superiors."
Although the inequities of land
distribution are widely acknowledged, many farmers object to the manner in which
the government is carrying out reform. Some express skepticism that all of the
squatters are in need of property.
"The campaign has attracted
opportunists," said Nigel Saunders, who leases about 5,000 acres of farmland
from his father-in-law to grow tobacco, roses and maize, and organizes game
hunting on the property. "They see the farms as easy pickings."
Jonathan Moyo, campaign manager for ZANU-PF, rejects the claim. He says
the government's aim is to acquire 12.3 million acres of land over the next five
years.
"That is what the people who voted for us want, so that is
exactly what they will get," Moyo said, noting that compensation will be paid
only for improvements made to the land.
Many white farmers fear that
the type of violence and intimidation that characterized the preelection farm
invasions might begin again. At least 30 people, mostly opposition supporters,
were killed and hundreds beaten, tortured and forced to flee before the vote.
"There is still a feeling of uncertainty on the farms," said Les Milne,
who runs a security and protection operation here in Bindura, a prime tobacco
growing region and ruling party stronghold. "Until that evaporates, we are not
too keen to bring the womenfolk back."
Some Farmers Relocate
Families
Many farmers sent their wives and children out of the
country to spare them the violence and intimidation. In many cases, farmers and
their laborers were forced to attend political rallies in favor of ZANU-PF. Farm
owners were forced to contribute food and fuel; their workers were made to
undergo "reeducation," during which they were indoctrinated with the ruling
party ideology.
"People were told that, if there was an MDC victory in
their area, they would be killed," said Grant of the farmers union.
A
Western official who monitored the election says there was evidence that at
least 10% of the vote in Bindura had been rigged and that an extra ballot box
containing about 3,000 fake votes had been brought to one polling station.
The European Union election observer team concluded that high levels of
violence, intimidation, coercion and other flaws seriously marred the electoral
process. The MDC has said it will dispute the victory of ruling party candidates
in 20 constituencies.
Zimbabwe's 4,500 predominantly white commercial
farmers produce virtually all of the wheat and beef, and much of the maize,
needed to feed the country. In addition, they produce tobacco, which accounts
for about a third of the nation's annual export earnings and 20% of its gross
domestic product.
Grant says that this year's tobacco crop falls short
of projections by 66,000 tons and that the wheat yield is off by 80,000 tons. He
estimates that the agricultural sector's annual income is down by about $120
million this year because of the farm invasions and the disruptions they have
caused.
As the crisis escalated earlier this year, scores of farmers
fled the country for Britain, South Africa and Australia. Conradie, who sent his
wife and three children to South Africa to wait out the election and its
aftermath, insists that he will remain in Zimbabwe. But he is exploring business
ventures outside of farming.
Others express confidence that the crisis
soon will blow over now that the election has passed.
"Every time we go
through an election, we go through the land issue," Grant said. "It reaches a
peak, and then it crashes."
There also was hope that the new opposition
in parliament will be able to redirect the government's land reform policy. With
more than a third of the seats in the 150-member parliament, the MDC can block
further constitutional changes.
But some observers were less optimistic
that the land issue, and the troubles associated with it, would be so quickly
subdued. The squatters, they say, are unlikely to go away peacefully and
empty-handed.
Wetherell, the newspaper editor, summed it up: "Mugabe
will not be able to click his fingers and restore order."
By ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press Writer
Thursday June 29 3:32 PM ET
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Ruling party militants stepped up their campaign of threats and intimidation Thursday against white landowners accused of backing the opposition, illegally occupying at least three more farms.
Farm leaders urged landowners to remain on full alert.
After a lull during weekend parliamentary elections, illegal occupiers renewed their demands for land, food and money, said Commercial Farmers Union spokesman Steve Crawford. He said they seized at least three more properties and sent reinforcements into several others already under occupation.
The militants, who say they are veterans of the bush war that led to Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, said the victory of President Robert Mugabe's ruling party at the polls entitled them to enforce his policy of seizing white-owned farms without paying compensation.
Since Mugabe lost a constitutional referendum in February, militants have staked claims to more than 1,600 white-owned farms.
Mugabe ordered police not to remove the squatters, arguing they were protesting unfair land ownership by the descendants of mostly British settlers.
Officials of Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front party have vowed to push ahead with the immediate nationalization of 804 white-owned farms targeted in late May. It was unclear what would happen to occupied farms not among the 804, but the occupiers have shown no signs of leaving.
Around the northeastern provincial center of Bindura, 50 miles from Harare, a warning that a ``hit squad'' of revenge-seeking militants was planning to hunt down three white supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change caused panic in the farming community, Crawford said.
Farm workers overheard militants make the threat, which was aired Wednesday over the farms' security radio network.
``The community was badly shaken. Everyone was asked to maintain alertness and keep their observation systems active,'' Crawford said.
Mugabe's party captured 62 of the 120 parliamentary seats in last weekend's elections, with the main opposition winning 57 mostly urban constituencies. One seat went to a small opposition party in its southeastern stronghold.
Farmers had hoped relatively peaceful polling meant dialogue and legal procedures would be used to acquire land for the resettlement of landless blacks.
But militants have threatened more takeovers and farmers reported more equipment, crops and cattle stolen with little intervention from the police.
In a typical incident, a farmer was told to leave his property and occupiers moved into a workshop to sharpen axes and knives, saying the farm was now theirs.
``The pressure on farmers is continuing. It's very worrying,'' Crawford said.
The main opposition party has accused Mugabe of orchestrating the occupations to bolster his support in rural areas ahead of the elections and to punish white land owners for supporting the opposition's calls for orderly land reform.
The occupations have disrupted production, crippling the agriculture-based economy.
The runup to the elections was marked by a bitter campaign of violence and intimidation that left at least 30 people dead - five of them white farmers - and thousands homeless. Most of the victims were opposition supporters.
The influence of elected opposition lawmakers is diluted under a provision in the constitution allowing Mugabe to appoint 30 members to the 150-seat parliament in Harare.
The previous parliament had only three opposition members
HARARE, July 1 (Reuters) - A group of Zimbabwean soldiers in armoured cars drove into a Harare township on Saturday, a recent scene of political feuding between rival parties, and beat up an opposition member of parliament, residents and witnesses said.
They said about 30 soldiers in two vehicles drove into Dzivarasekwa, west of Harare, and pounced on Edwin Mushoriwa, 27, a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), elected to parliament in last week's general election.
"They found him near his house in a car and beat him up very badly. He has had to go to hospital," one resident told Reuters.
A Reuters photographer, who arrived at the scene shortly after the incident, saw the soldiers dragging another man into the back of an armoured truck.
Mushoriwa later told Reuters he had been beaten up after the soldiers broke up a party to celebrate his election win with his supporters.
"They came out and blocked the road and said we were being a nuisance. I told them we had police permission but they said they wouldn't listen to any MP who is not from ZANU-PF," he said by telephone from hospital where he was undergoing a medical check.
"Two soldiers then beat me up with rifle butts and fists. I suffered some cuts," he added.
Five other people, believed to be supporters of the MDC, were also injured in the ensuing scuffle with the soldiers, Mushoriwa said, adding others had ran away.
"We've reported this (incident) to the police but they said the issue of arresting soldiers is up to military police," Mushoriwa said.
Police spokesman Chief Superintendent Wayne Bvudzijena told Reuters police were investigating the report, but added that it was the security forces' task to curb gatherings that could incite violence.
"What we are doing is discouraging any party from having any demonstrations due to the volatile situation in the townships," he said
"The MP was advised about the problem and that he must not hold a demonstration. Therefore police and soldiers had to intervene and disperse the demonstration," Bvudzijena said, describing Mushoriwa's injuries as "moderate."
Zimbabwe has seen sporadic clashes between the backers of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF and those of the opposition MDC following a hotly-contested ballot in which Mugabe's party narrowly defeated the nine-month old labour-backed MDC.
But the clashes have not been on the same scale as the violence that preceded the poll and which led to the deaths of at least 30 people.
Both Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai have appealed for peace following the voting.
ZANU-PF, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, won 62 seats against the MDC's 57. One seat out of the 120 contested seats was won by a smaller opposition party.
Residents in another Harare township, Madvuku, also said some soldiers had beaten up people in the area on Friday night, a report police said they were also checking.
Army spokesmen were unavailable for comment.
Fearful farmers seek a place in Australian sun
FROM
DANIEL MCGRORY IN MARONDERA (The Times)
BROCHURES for
Kangaroo Island and Darling Downs
are in many a
farmhouse today as white Zimbabweans
ponder escaping
to Australia.
A new wave of intimidation from armed Zanu (PF)
vigilantes who descended on farms around Mashonaland
yesterday has frightened families.One woman, who
abandoned her farm again with her three children, was
almost in tears when she said: "We have had enough -
we
can't take any more. We can't sleep, the kids are
scared,
so we want out."
She knows two families leaving next week, for New
Zealand and Western Australia.One farmer, who asked
not to be named, spoke of how the vigilantes had
arrived
in a convoy of cars and, as he cradled his
little daughter in
his arms, screamed at him to leave
by tomorrow or the
family would die. He is not
prepared to discover whether
the threats are serious.
Yesterday he filled out papers to
move to
Australia.
At the height of the violence these past weeks, the
Australian High Commission was receiving about 400
similar requests a day.
This 27-year-old father of two can trace his lineage
to
Britain through his grandparents but does not
fancy exile
on "mud island" as it is known locally.
"If we are looking
to replicate as best we can this
life, Australia is more like
home: the outdoor life,
the farming opportunities, and of
course the weather.
We hate rain."
At the bar of the Mvurwi Country Club, farmers nurse
their beers and thoughts about joining the waiting list for
a
flight to Australia. Ian Taylor - not his real name
- tugs at
his tight khaki shorts and concedes that at
nearly 50, he
has little chance of getting a visa
compared with his farm
manager, who is half his age
and has a university degree.
If Mr Taylor could sell his tobacco plantation,
Australian
states would be fighting for his
signature. But no one will
buy it and President
Mugabe has it on the list of 804 he
intends to seize.
"It's the younger Zimbabweans who will
go. These are
boys who know the land but also their way
around a
spread-sheet and they have no property so they
can
just leave. It will soon be only the old farts left
barricaded in their farmhouses."
Some parents are encouraging their children to go.
Unless
peace is restored, farms will be without
managerial skills
from the next
generation.
Asked why he does not seek asylum in Britain, Mr
Taylor
and his companions recite their complaints.
Too cold, too
bureaucratic, too much tax, land too
costly - even were
there farms to buy - different
farming, the Common
Agricultural Policy, and, they
chorus, a Labour
Government. Add to that, Mr Taylor
said, "warm beer
and a lousy cricket
team".
Delegations from Queensland and Western Australia
came to invite reconnaissance missions; a dozen
farmers
are back to tell of Australia's virtues. A
state official who
accompanied them said: "You have
to warn them life is
very different. If you are a
farmer in Australia you won't
have a workforce of
labourers whom you pay peanuts or
nothing at all. You
won't have scores of domestics to pick
up after
you.
"Yet these are people with resilience, they have
pioneer
spirit, and that is what Australian states
are looking for."
Since the indecisive election, black professionals are
also
asking for brochures.
An official for the Commercial Farmers' Union said:
"If
you let it be known you are going, you may as
well hang
an advertising hoarding at your entrance
telling the war
veterans to come and get it." Plans
to leave are kept
secret. People are afraid that if
they go, even into
temporary exile, they may never be
allowed back.
Mr Mugabe's Government is expected to act soon to
seize the 804 white-owned farms, but there are fears
that
ruling party mobs will pre-empt the legal
process and
drive the owners off (Jan Raath
writes).
Since the elections, so-called guerrilla veterans have
been
exacting retribution from farmers and workers
suspected
of voting for the Movement for Democratic
Change. Mr
Mugabe met leaders of the veterans'
movement yesterday.
Officials of the farmers' union
were also due to meet them.