Sent: 05 April 2000 05:34
Subject: Farm Invasions in Zimbabwe
Hi All,
The following is an email from my friend Aron, whose family owns
a small farm in Ruwa, some 30km from Harare. Aron is a great bloke and a
leader
of my church home group. My adopted country need our prayers at the
moment.
John
On the morning of the 29th of March at about 9:00, 60 people came
onto
our farm.
They sent us a letter claiming to be ex - combatants and stated
categorically
that they were claiming their land and that they would only leave us
with about
15 of the 141 hectares that we own and have LEGALLY owned since
1985!!!!!
yes 5 years AFTER independence.
In response, we called the police from the little depot that they
have near our
eastern gate. Approximately an hour later, we gave up waiting or
them to
arrive and went and fetched them! They said that two details would
come onto the
farm and investigate the situation. This they duly did and reported
back to us that
although the 60 people claimed to be war veterans they were nothing
of the sort
and were merely freeloaders from the humble squatter camp that you
called home.
They therefore said that they had the right to summons the riot
police corps and
have the people removed from the farm. Cool, we thought, there is
some law left
in Zimbabwe after all. Ha ha ha, they weren't lying when they said
"assumption
is the mother of all f&@k - ups", (excuse the expression, I though
it was appropriate). Needless to say, the cops never returned.
Meanwhile the number had grown to 200 people moving into Bellapaise
Estates, (Get you
free land Here)(Private) Limited. By the time the cops finally gave in to
our barrage of
phonecalls, now to dangerous to leave the house and go and collect
them, they
promised us that two more details would be sent to investigate the
already investigated situation. They arrived at about 5:30 that afternoon
and, because
work stops at 5 in Zimbabwe, it is only logical that land grabbing
stops at 5
as well! The cops therefore found and reported that all the people
had left our
farm!
Next morning, 300 people returned, and we phoned the police again.
They
sent two more details and agreed that there were now more than 300
people on
the land and that yes, this was indeed a bad and dangerous situation
but, no,under
theorders of the Commissioner of Police who is under instruction
from Dumiso
Dabengwa, who is under instruction from no less than the Hon, Bob
himself, there
is nothing that the police can or will do to sort the situation out
as it was
political and should therefore be handled by the politicians. So we
decide to do a little investigating ourselves and find out (and this is
fair dinkum) that the MP for our area, a
fine lady by the name of Irene Zinde is using our farm as a neat
little campaigning tool
andhanding out 20 to 30 metre plots to whoever buys a party card and
promises to
vote for her. Needless to say, she is fighting under the banner of
the Zanu PF
ruling (hah) party. Anyway, as Thursday afternoon draws to a close
we get word
that "we have now occupied half of this land and when we have taken
all the land, we are going to come and kick you out of your house and
furniture factory, which as you know is a small enterprise that we run on
the farm, and take over everything completely. There were by this time in
excess of 800 people on the farm. Thursday night was the longest night of
our lives.
The time has probably come to draw the very real distinction between this
and other
farm invasions (more than 500 nation-wide). The other farm invasions
have been
conducted by real war veterans who have GENERALLY occupied farms 10
or 20
times the size of ours way out of town in a peaceful manner.
Normally, between 5
and 30 people have been involved in the occupation. They have not
allocated
themselves lots or anything of the sort and they generally just sit
on the land
waiting for something to happen. We have no war veterans on our
farm, there are,
at that point, over 800 people on the farm and there have been
threats made on
our lives.
They have also allocated themselves land and have moved in wherever
they feel
like it. They also don't stay on the farm after dark.
Friday, and the light dawns on another shit day in sunny Zimbabwe.
Aron
decides it is time to contact the lawyers and see what we can
actually do about
this. I spent the whole day on the phone to lawyers, Commercial
Farmers Union
President and Vice presidents and to a whole number of policeman,
including the
Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police, the aforementioned's
immediate
subordinate.
Only to be reminded that there is "NOTHING WE CAN DO". Oh and don't
leave
the farm. While this is going on, the leaders of this great land
grab declare that
all the land that was to be allocated has been allocated and that
there is no
more available. Well, as you know, Epworth is the home of more than
300000
people, and 3000 of those have also gotten wind that there is land
available on
our farm. These guys get angry and chase off the leaders and then
declare
their own guys the leaders. They produce knives and other
instruments that come
in handy when there in killing to be done and start fighting the now
established 1200 people for the already occupied land and also start
claiming additional land and getting closer and closer to house. The
noise was unbelievable and the fear that only one who has been in a
situation where there are 4000 people rioting on your farm can identify
with, was also pretty hard to control. But there are certain things in
life that don't change and at 5, the rioting stopped and every body went
home. Friday night took a while to pass as well. Saturday, the leaders
return to try and establish some order on the farm and do this by saying
that there is another farm on the other side of the airport that is
welcoming the landless and so 3000 people left us and went west to pioneer
Butler's place. That still leaves us with 1200 people on our farm.
Another point must be made clear at this junction. These people that have
now been allocated plots have been given strict instructions by these guys
that they are to clear their area and do no more; no foundations are to be
dug, no building materials are to be brought in, nothing, besides the
clearing of grass is to be done to the land. The grass, they
don't realise, is actually a crop worth alot of money which we plant and
reap to sell as
thatching grass.
Your prayers would come in handy.
As a quick note to finish off, there was a peaceful march consisting
of 8000
National Constitutional Assembly supporters yesterday in the city.
In
this lot, were my brother, Karen's brother and Karen's father. All
were walking
along when they were accosted by Zanu PF supporters sporting
batons,clubs,
iron bars, bricks and rocks. The march did not remain peaceful. The riot
police that
had been accompanying the march started to lay in, not, as you would
expect,
to the Zanu guys but joined them in beating the NCA guys. Sean and
Mike
were chased off and were unable to assist Steve as he lay on the
ground being
kicked and clubbed all over his body, until he too, a man of incredible
courage and
stamina, managed to fight off his attackers and flee.
You may have watched coverage of this on your local TV but I can
assure
you that the Zimbabwe Bulls*@t Corporation(ZBC) did not.
Please also forward this e - mail to everyone else that you can so
that the
truth can finally start getting out. And could the recipients also
please give a
copy of this to their newspapers as well. We are a minority and it
is time the
world started defending the fundamental human rights of all people
not only the
majority.