LEGAL COMMUNIQUE
JAG is very aware and concerned about the proposed new
amendment to the land acquisition act and the bill gazetted today. JAG lawyers
likewise are strategising an urgent legal challenge pending this being passed
into law by which and whatever illegal means.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION AND IN THE INTERESTS OF TRANSPARENCY WE
DETAIL BELOW THE CONTENTS OF A LETTER TO COLIN CLOETE (CFU) FROM DAVID CONOLLY
(JAG) DATED FRIDAY, 13TH SEPTEMBER, 2002
Dear Colin,
I thank you for the time that you, Doug and David made
available to John, Chris and myself on Tuesday, 10th December, 2002.
I think it wise to put on paper the concerns that we raised
that evening on behalf of JAG.
Whilst we agree that CFU requires the full and active support
of all its members the concerns we raised are very real.
1. One-man, one-farm must be completely rejected as this
diminishes land tenure rights of Zimbabwean Citizens. We must also be extremely
careful to keep farming units viable and as this is a direct attack on title,
CFU must be seen to make a public stand against this.
2. CFU must use its name, which is well respected throughout
the world without fear or favour when communicating the plight of CFU members
worldwide.
3. CFU must litigate on behalf of its members to set
precedents that benefit all its members in the eyes of the laws of Zimbabwe and
the world.
4. CFU must show leadership, by taking into consideration the
preceding three points to create policy which must be implemented from the top
down as ZANU PF do. Rather than asking individuals or groups of farmers to come
to an agreement at local level and you trying to unite all these different
arguments is impossible for CFU to do successfully, this is controlled chaos and
you will have implemented ZANU PF policy, which is in your eyes and that of
ZANU's irreversible.
If the above is achieved you will unite your members.
Regards David Conolly Chairman - JAG
A LETTER FROM A DISPLACED FARMER
Dear Farmer,
Our CFU President has appealed to us to pay our licence fee to
keep the Union strong, and that he also welcomes constructive criticism, as per
his missive of 29th August, 2002.
A number of farmers have expressed concern to our President
and Council since May this year and we feel that we may be at the cross roads
right now. Firstly we agree fully that the Union must remain strong as long as
that strength is used in a positive manner for the farmers, and not against the
farmers. We disagree entirely with the statement that "most of us are still here
and many of us are still farming," to the point that we wonder if we are living
on the same planet as our President and his Council.
Whilst we admire our President for working "with Government on
the land reform issue", we express extreme concern that in the next breath he
openly admits that a) there is a "crisis" b) "it is an unequal struggle" c) to
it being a "chaotic land reform programme". We firmly believe that to have a
"personal policy to build bridges whereever I can, and keep the doors open for
communication" with Government is a very noble and open policy, but would need
to be honoured accordingly by the very people that he has opened the door for.
Furthermore, there may well have been instances where these very doors and
bridges have been used as inroads to destroy our very core of survival and
security. It you build a bridge, you have the responsibility to hold it. (In
the same manner as Horatius on the Bridge, I can assure you.)
In May our President openly told our members in Bulawayo that
he had been neutralised. In July our President openly printed in Count Down,
that he was sure that there would be no arrests of farmers and that farmers
would be allowed to carry on farming. At the opening of Congress, in August, we
were assured by our Honourable Guest, that no farmer would be evicted from his
home.
At Congress itself in August this year, the Farmers'
Associations voted for Mr. Ray Passaportus to take over as legal advisor. We
are now led to believe that certainly on one occasion, he briefed our Council
about a representative action being taken, only for our Council to send him
packing and not accept his advice - and then preach the word that "Council
rules". In the words of George Bernard Shaw, "with liberty, comes
responsibility; that is why most men dread it". If our farmers have appointed
our lawyer for our Union, are we absolutely sure that our President and our
Council has Their Right to not take the advice of our lawyer?
Then Mr. President, let me assure, you that in the words of
Mr. Fyske - once "We" are disregarded in entirety, (until subs are required)
then This is your Union, Your Council, Your problem and Your responsibility
until such time as You change Your tune. Still in August, our President has
seen fit to instruct our director to suspend the CFU Regional Executive Officer
for Mash West (South) "forthwith, without pay and other benefits, pending an
application being made to the Ministry of Labour for your dismissal." The
reason given is that "You have failed to faithfully represent and promote the
policies enunciated by the Council of the CFU, as instructed by the President
Colin Cloete."
Initial reports from Mash West South indicate that our
President may very well be at variance with his home crowd, exactly the same as
Mash West North and Matabeleland. We have no option but to call on our
President to hold a referendum of all licenced farmers in the same manner as
Alan Burl did. In this manner the farmers will have their say about their
future, not Council and not our President, building his bridges. Failure to
call such a general meeting will certainly arouse some degree of suspicion to
the effect that some may feel that "You have failed to faithfully accept the
will of your members." The next logical step will be for the farmers to have a
meeting at Harare Sports Club (we are now all in town anyway) and express that
"we will fail to faithfully pay our licence fee until our Union allows us to
faithfully have our say."
And that bring us to the very word that brought our friend Mr.
Freeth into disrepute with our President, of our Union and our Council. Faith.
For our regional executive officer to be reprimanded by our President, and our
Director for reading a piece from his bible, at their request, at the opening of
our Congress, when our country is starving and our members want to grow food for
our people, on his land just to give our people their daily bread, is
unimaginable. But there again, is it? My late father always told me that
"touch a man's pocket, or his religion and you have got war". His father joined
our Union at the age of seventy when it was conceived c. 1940, and having been
the opening bat and captain of our national side in 1908, I have no doubt that
he would now say that "this is just not cricket chaps".
Yous sincerely,
J.L. Robinson (Displaced farmer)
SITREP 12/09/02
TENGWE
The situation in Tengwe has not improved, with tensions still
running high. Yesterday evening, three farming households were barricaded into
their homesteads by war veterans and settlers, making demands on behalf of the
labour for retrenchment packages. In at least two of these cases, the labour
themselves were not involved, and do not want the farmers to leave. The farms in
question belong to Andy and Sharon Kockott, Leith and Deborah Bray, and Peter
Dawson (who is currently barricaded into the house with his wife and son). None
of the farmers have a current Section 8 order on their farms. On the Kockotts'
farm, the tyres of all the farm vehicles were let down in order to prevent their
leaving. However, in the early hours of the morning, several neighbouring
farmers arrived to pump up the tyres, and to resupply the Kockotts.
This morning saw all three households still barricaded into
the homesteads. The security fence around the Brays' house was breached, and
some 280 cattle herded into the enclosure. At three this afternoon, the settlers
and war veterans joined them in the enclosure, beating drums and shouting
threats. Four vehicles from neighbouring farms are currently in a stand-off
position along the road from the farm. A government vehicle with twelve people
on board, including Lands Committee officials passed by them en route to the
Bray homestead, and they were informed that the party was there to ensure that
the Brays "were off the farm by tomorrow". The reason quoted was that Leith Bray
is "politically active".
The farm labour has also been roped into the siege, although
in most cases they were unhappy with the situation. The Brays are fully
supplied, locked inside their house, and are confident that they are safe. They
are determined to wait it out. The situation remains volatile. On the Kockotts'
and Dawsons' farms, no such pressure has been brought to bear as yet, and
although Andy Kockott is negotiating with the labour, the siege continues.
CHIREDZI/TRIANGLE
This morning, eight farmers were picked up by the local police
for violation of Section 8 orders. The local Cane Growers Association has been
attempting to pursue a representative action in the High Court to challenge
these orders, and the case was submitted today. However, of the fifty sugar cane
farmers in the area, over a quarter have now been brought in by the local
police. This afternoon, a further four were arrested, and three of the initial
group were released (Jeremy Baldwin and Aleck Geddi had both successfully had
their Section 8 orders set aside in Administrative Court, and Fred Blatchford
was remanded for health reasons). The remaining farmers still in custody are
Dave des Fontaine, Pete Wenham, Henri Souchon, Graham Dabbs, Benoir Fayd'herbe,
Alan Fayd'herbe, Mike Pretorius, Keith Crowley and Trevor Vickers). Indications
are that they may be held at least overnight, since their case has not yet come
before a magistrate.
THE JAG TEAM
Africa: dying of self inflicted wounds.
By Keith Harvey
(Text of a speech at the Zimbabwe CFU Congress 1992)
We Africans must accept the fact
that our continent is slowly dying. It is dying of self-inflicted wounds and
man is undoubtedly the culprit. The very fabric of the continent is being torn
apart by wars and rebellions, ethnic and religious strife, mal-administration
and economic mismanagement, corruption and greed, but above all, by widespread
and accelerating environmental degradation.
The threat of the nuclear bomb may
have receded but the threat of the ecological bomb is reality in Africa.
Half the surface area of our
continent is already desert or subject to the remorseless processes of
desiccation and desertification, and yet little over 200 years ago this old
continent was in a state of magnificent environmental harmony, with some of the
most diverse and impressive plant and animal populations on this earth.
Man, and particularly his domestic
animals, were relatively late arrivals into those delicately balanced
ecosystems and for many millennia he instinctively adjusted and adapted his
activities to the preservation of these systems.
The bounties of nature were there
for the taking and seemingly inexhaustible, and there evolved one of the
strongest and most enduring of human traditions – man’s inalienable rights
of avail to the resources of mother earth – for the hunter and the
gatherer, the fisherman and the woodcutter, the herdsman and the ploughman, the
miner and the gold panner, and it was all for free.
The early people evolved simple
nomadic systems of land use using principles of shifting cultivation or slash
and burn, by which areas of temporary occupation were deforested, cultivated
and grazed until vegetation and fertility were depleted and were then abandoned
and allowed to revert to the natural processes of recovery and regeneration.
Such primitive rotational systems
were, in fact, technically sound and ecologically sustainable, but their
productive capacity and periods of rehabilitation obviously depended on their
resource capabilities in terms of climate, soils and altitude.
For instance, in the open woodland
Savannah’s, so typical of much of sub-Saharan Africa, it is estimated that
sustainable periods of occupation and recovery were in the order of 10 years
and 30-50 years respectively at a carrying capacity of 80 –100 hectares per
family and their livestock, on a subsistence basis.
As populations of humans and
livestock increased, reaching exponential rates during the past 50 years these
carrying capacities have been greatly exceeded, community migrations have
ceased, and land occupation has become permanent, but without the adoption of
changed and technically appropriate land use systems. The traditional free and
universal rights of avail for the axe and the ox still prevail. The stable
ecosystems have long since collapsed, the teeming wildlife populations are
practically a thing of the past, and the fragile mantle of trees and perennial
grasses has worn thin.
Throughout the length and breadth of
Africa, the deserts are on the move. The traditional systems of land tenure are
condemning the African people to perpetual poverty and famine.
And yet we bluff ourselves it can’t
happen to Zimbabwe. Go and visit the Save Valley Conservancy, go to Chivi, to
Mtetengwe, to Gwanda, to Tjolotjo, to Lupane.
The Zambezi Valley, with steeper
slopes, higher temperatures and higher rainfall intensities, is estimated to
have twice the potential soil losses of the southern catchments, if the present
settlement policies are perpetuated.
Annual soil losses in the southern
catchments probably exceed 50 tonnes per hectare per annum and every bag of
grain costs the country four tonnes of topsoil.
Soil losses from communal grazing
areas are, if anything, even greater and are the main contributors to recent
alarming measurements of river and dam siltation.
Lack of disciplined control and
management of these overstocked grazing areas is the present inducement of
communal tennure and unrestricted rights of avail.
No satisfactory system for ensuring
fair and proper allocation of grazing rights and sustainable grazing management
has been implemented. What has been lacking is responsible accountability and
pride of ownership. The real economics of resource devaluation are entirely
neglected.
A strong modern agricultural economy
can never be built on a foundation of communal peasant farming. Our communal
lands today provide, at best, a miserable degree of social security to millions
of families.
In terms of agricultural production,
they constitute the most misused and at the same time, under unutilized part of
our country.
Zimbabwe has many thousands of
capable peasant farmers, but they are condemned to farm non-viable units and
earn more sub-economics incomes. They have no real security or tenure, no real
collateral in the form of fixed assets, and no opportunity to expand and
prosper.
The post independence resettlement
schemes missed a wonderful opportunity to place on the land a new category of
proud and independent yeoman farmers who could, in time by their example, lead
the whole of Africa back on the road to survival.
It is never too late to start on
that road. All we have to do is to select suitably qualified men and women and
to give them the opportunity to establish themselves as competent individual
farmers on viable units of land, the size and capabilities of which are
determined by the agro – ecological region in which they are situated.
At this congress (CFU held in
August) we obviously cannot provide detailed solutions for such a complex and
difficult problem, but this resolution further contends that, to succeed, it be
entrusted to a properly constituted rural land authority, or board, which
should be given wide powers to investigate and make recommendations to the
Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Water Development on all matters relating to
the occupation and use of agricultural land.
These would include the acquisition,
alienation, subdivision, settlement or disposal of rural land for agricultural
purposes.
Its principal objective should be to
promote the concept and development of individual tenure in the agricultural
sector of Zimbabwe.
It should be further empowered to
initiate and facilitate tenancy and contributory purchase agreements, and, to
arbitrate in matters relating to land classification and land values.
It should have access to all the
relevant government ministries and agencies, but especially to Agritex and the
Natural Resources Board, committees and sub committees of the proposed Rural
District Councils.
The majority of board members should
be experienced and successful farmers with bureaucratic and petty political
interference reduced to the minimum.
The concept of the individual rights
to property is the foundation upon which the whole structure of most successful
democratic economies are built.
It is recognized in law as the mot
complete form of ownership and the most acceptable form of security for
obtaining credit. In a stable political climate, title to land offers the
greatest security of tenure and investment.
It stimulates individual enterprise
and thereby promotes high levels of production and expansion. It endangers
pride of possession, and a sense of permanency and patriotism.
It carries with it a sense of
responsibilities and obligations, which generally ensure high standards of
husbandry and conservation. It leads to spontaneous community development and
cooperative effort.
It tends to produce individualistic,
competent people of high moral and spiritual values, who contribute enormously
to the character of their nation.
| AFRICA
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Retired
Zimbabwe judge 'vanishes'
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| Harare |
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| 14 September 2002
11:52 |
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A 65-year-old retired white Zimbabwean
judge disappeared on Friday after being picked up by unknown police at his home
before dawn, his lawyers said.
Fergus Blackie, who ordered the arrest of
Zimbabwe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa for contempt of court just before
he retired in July, was taken from his home in central Harare at 4am, advocate
Dipak Mehta said.
Mehta said he was planning an application to the High
Court on Friday afternoon for an order to police to produce Blackie in
court.
"He vanished after being picked up by some policemen, we don't
know who they were," he said.
"I have been running around since this
morning and still haven't found where he is. We spoke to people at the law and
order section, they claim ignorance. I have been to Harare central (police
station) and was given the run around. I have been to police headquarters and to
police special investigations and they claim to be ignorant.
"They are
going to make things difficult and give us the run around until Monday and then
deal with the matter, unless we can get something sorted out this afternoon," he
said.
Human rights lawyers said it was common practice among security
police to arrest government critics on Friday mornings, keep them in police
cells all weekend and bring them to court on Monday mornings.
Blackie was
threatened with criminal proceedings by Chinamasa after he ordered police to
arrest the ministers for failing to appear in court on charges of
contempt.
The daily Herald newspaper reported on Friday that chief
justice Godfrey Chidyausiku had issued police commissioner Augustine Chihuri
with "instructions to commence criminal investigations" against Blackie over a
recent case involving a woman convicted in a lower court of theft from her
employer.
It quoted Chidyausiku as saying Blackie's conduct in the case
was "grossly irregular".
The newspaper said Blackie had quashed the
woman's conviction, but had not consulted the other judge who sat with him in
the case. However, no independent confirmation could be obtained.
Blackie
has been a frequent target of the state propaganda press.
He took early
retirement in July, five years before he was due to step down. One of his last
rulings was to order the arrest of Chinamasa who had failed to appear before the
court to answer charges of contempt of court.
The charges were brought by
the country's judiciary against Chinamasa after he denounced a ruling by an
Asian High Court judge.
Chinamasa responded to Blackie's arrest order by
saying that the ruling was "a hostile parting shot against the executive...
which should not be tolerated". Police did not carry out Blackie's
order.
Blackie was the seventh judge in 15 months to step down from the
bench after issuing rulings that embarrassed President Robert Mugabe's
regime.
Judge George Smith is the last white judge left. The first to go
was internationally respected former chief justice Anthony Gubbay, who was
forced to resign by the regime and threatened with violence by Mugabe's ruling
party militiamen.
The government accused him of being "anti-government"
because his court had declared Mugabe's seizures of white-owned farms illegal
and ordered police to evict squatters who had invaded the farms. The orders were
ignored.
Since then, Mugabe has appointed other pro-government judges to
the supreme court and left only one independent justice on the bench of
five.
The International Bar Association, made up of former chief justices
and leading advocates, has accused Mugabe of "packing the court" with
sympathisers to ensure favourable decisions.
Blackie served as a lawyer
in the attorney-general's department of the then Rhodesian government and in
1974 he was elected as an MP for the former ruling Rhodesian Front of former
prime minister Ian Smith.
Four years later he became a junior judge who
was promoted by Mugabe after independence in 1980.
In 1995 one of
Mugabe's ministers accused him of running a "kangaroo court" because he held a
night sitting in a police station to order police to release a group of white
farmers held on allegations of illegal possession of weapons.
The
government convened an inquiry into allegations of misconduct and he was
cleared. ? Sapa-AFP
News Update - Saturday 14 September 2002
(On behalf of Justice for
Agriculture)
Chiredzi/Triangle Arrests
An additional cane farmer, Theo
Engels was arrested early evening bring to
13 the number arrested in the
Chiredzi/Triangle area. Of these two were
released as their Section 8 orders
were cancelled in the Administrative
(Land) Court. One person was allowed to
sign a warned and cautioned
statement and was allowed to return home and will
attend Court on Monday.
The remaining 10 spent the night in custody in a
small (6 x 4 meters)
holding cell with 8 other suspects.
Arrests have
continued today with prominent Hotelier / Farmer Digby Nesbitt
and Richard
Lancaster being arrested, bringing those arrested for 'Farming'
to 15 in this
area.
Update Dawson - Kemasembi Farm
The situation on the Dawson
homestead calmed down with the family now able
to come and go.
Update
Leith Bray - Meldon Farm
Mr and Mrs Leith Bray had to be evacuated out of
their home as the mob began
to light fires around the homestead. The Bray
home is under a thatched roof
and it is felt that the risk of a fire setting
alight the house was
extremely high.
Update Kockott - Fumeria
Farm
At approximately 9:15 pm a mob made up of war veterans, settlers and
staff
arrived on the Kockott veranda and settled in for a 'pungwe' (an all
night
political rally). Andy and Sharon Kockott remained in their home all
night.
During the night a group of staff (under pressure) approached the
Kockott's
for some food promising to leave immediately food was made
available. The
Kockott's gave them mealie meal but the mob then continued
with their rally
regardless of the promises made. Kockott has refused to
engage in any
further dialogue this morning and the mob seems to have
disbanded.
It is a widely held view that the current pressure on farmers
coincides with
a political campaign for the contesting of Rural Council
elections. Farm
employees and their families who number approximately one and
a half million
people is a significant constituency to coerce into voting
ZANU PF.
Events last night on the Kockott veranda add weight to this
view. The
Kockott property is no longer listed for acquisition as Kockott won
his land
back through a High Court ruling. The single owned farm is a
Tobacco,
Paprika and Coffee farm.
Kockott described the modus operandi
saying, "They arrived on the veranda
and proceedings began with traditional
dancing and singing lead by war
veterans and settlers. This was interspersed
with lengthy Political speeches
by the war veterans. A couple of workers
whispered to me that they were
under immense pressure and that the veterans
had a roll call every hour or
so. They could not refuse to participate in the
pungwe although they knew it
to be illegal and that they still required their
jobs.
Elsewhere in Mashonaland West a farmer who last year retrenched
over 300
workers as his farms were taken over is barricaded in his office
complex on
his remaining farm. The retrenchment packages paid out to the
ex-employees
were drafted and agreed to by all Labour Unions in the year
2000. A group of
war veterans accompanied by some ex-employees are insisting
that he back pay
additional retrenchment benefits covered in new labour
legislation Statutory
Instrument 6 which allows for the retroactive payment
of benefits. This
matter is still to be decided in a case due to be heard
next week but the
mob are trying to force the issue.
This draconian
legislation is being selectively applied to agriculture but
is also being
mulled for the industrial sector. Whilst these laws are being
selectively
applied they are at odds with the Zimbabwean Constitution. On
the other hand
there could be no possible way these laws could be applied
across the board
in Zimbabwe, as this would bring the country to an economic
standstill. As
the economic meltdown magnifies, retrenchments multiply
across the sectors
including the retrenchment last year of hundreds of
members of the civil
service.
---------------------- Background info - filed 13 Sept
2002
Twelve farmers from the Triangle/Chiredzi have been arrested under
section 8
legislation and are due to spend the weekend in jail. They are Dave
des
Fountaine, Pete Wenham, Henri Souchon, Aleck Geddie, Graham Babbf,
Benori
Fayd'herb, Fred Blatchford, Jeremy Baldwin, and four
others.
The farmers all have section 8 orders and are part of the Cane
Growers
Association who are taking representative action against the orders
in court
today. It is thought that this action would still
proceed.
Meanwhile in the Tengwe farming area another four farmers are
presently
barricaded in their homes by war veterans who are demanding that
they pay
off their workers and vacate their farms, despite the nullification
of their
section 8 orders in the High Court.
The four are Andy Kockott
of Tengwe Estates, Leith Bray of Meldon Farm,
Simon and Peter Dawson of
Kemasembi Farm.
According to Andy Kockott, who is a single farm owner,
his workers have not
been allowed to work since Saturday when the war
veterans instructed the
Kockott's to leave the farm by 2pm on
Sunday.
Police arrived on Monday and inquired why he was still on the
farm, to which
he explained that there was no official document or order for
the eviction,
only an illegal verbal notice issued by the war
veterans.
Patrick Maponga, a retired army officer and well known war
veteran in the
area visited the farm on Tuesday and gave the family a further
ultimatum to
leave by 6pm that evening to leave.
As of Friday (13th)
noon, the situation was at a standoff following the
arrival on Thursday of a
small contingent of war veterans. As the group
arrived at the farm, Mr.
Kockott took a photograph of them as they
approached his back door. At that
moment, the war veterans ran away and
proceeded to the farm village where
they rounded up all the workers and
walked them down to the main
road.
The war veterans then sent a delegation, including a few workers,
to have a
meeting with Kockott. As the meeting was due to commence, a vehicle
carrying
Red Cross personnel arrived. They had coincidentally come to assess
the
situation on the ground about farm workers and their families. The
observed
the meeting proceedings.
The war veterans complained that Mr,
Kockott had already ignored 3 evictions
and a police directive to leave the
farm and insisted that he pay his
workers their retrenchment
packages.
Mr. Kockott insisted that there were no legal grounds upon
which the war
veterans could evict him from his home or compel him to pay off
his workers.
These discussions went on for about an hour before the
foreman and one of
the farm drivers approached Mr. Kockott and informed him
that they wished to
continue working. They asked that the police be called in
so that they could
address the war veterans in the presence of police
officers. However, the
police refused to attend to the scene.
The Red
Cross personnel left the farm soon after and the war veterans
continued to
demand that Mr. Kockott should sit down with his workers and
negotiate within
the hour (i.e. by 4pm), retrenchment packages. However, Mr.
Kockott refused
to give in to their demands and informed them that
Government &
Agricultural Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) and
National
Employment Council (NEC) officials were expected on the farm to
aid
negotiations.
The problems intensified Friday with other farmers
being barricaded in. On
Leith Bray's Meldon Farm a group of war veterans have
surrounded the
homestead completely and are trying to break into the house.
Mr and Mrs Bray
are in an end room and are in radio contact. The war veterans
have also
pushed cattle into the Bray's security fence.
The situation
has settled down on the Dawson's Kemasembi Farm. According to
Simon Dawson,
the group of about 45 - 50 people has now moved off and two
representatives
were at lunch time speaking to the NEC. Earlier, members of
the group had
held hostage Simon's brother Timothy for four hours during
which they pushed
him around and threatened him. They also let the air out
of the tires on his
vehicle to prevent him from getting away. He did not
sustain any
injuries.
All the farmers are currently in the process of grading tobacco
crops which
they should be able to do as they have High court orders allowing
them to
continue farming.
Ends
(13 September 2002)
For more
info, please contact Jenni Williams
Mobile (+263) 91 300456 or 11213 885 or
on email jennipr@mweb.co.zw
Or Fax
(+2639) 63978 or (+2634) 703829 Office email: prnews@mweb.co.zw
Dear Family and Friends,
This week I have had many desperate emails from
farming friends who have been forced out of their homes in the past few days and
are desperately looking for somewhere to stay. One friend told me that they were
ordered out of their home by a senior politician who has now claimed five farms
in the area. The farmer and his family were given 12 hours to pack up and get
out. They do not know where to go, have no plans in place but knew that they had
to get out or risk being put in prison - or worse. They went into a mad flurry
of activity and when everything was piled up outside on the lawn Mandy's
husband suggested she go around and stick white labels on the boxes and items
that were the most important so that they would be easily identifiable when they
found somewhere to live. Mandy walked around looking at the contents of her life
strewn on the lawn and with the help of Albert, one of her farm workers,
stuck little white labels on her most treasured possessions. When she had
finished, Albert picked up the roll of stickers and stuck a little white
label onto his chest showing that he wanted to come too and should not be
forgotten. Mandy started to cry, she and her family have endured so very much in
the last 30 months and in her words they have been trashed and looted and are
now booted.
What will become of Albert in the weeks and months
ahead is not known. Perhaps he and his little white sticker, like the white
farmers, will become as unwanted as Jews who wore little yellow stars 60 years
ago. As the International Crisis Group said this week, Zimbabwe's farm workers
are literally falling through the cracks. Official sources estimate that less
than 1% of the country's 1.5 million farm workers have been given pieces of land
by the government in this so called land redistribution programme. They have
become homeless, jobless and destitute and some are resorting to desperate
measures as a means of survival. One of these is extortion and it is absolutely
tragic to see what is happening in labour offices all over the
country.
It was not enough for the Zimbabwe government to
seize the land, crops, equipment and then homes of white farmers. They then
gazetted legislation ordering that if a farm was seized by the State the farmers
would have to pay enormous retrenchment packages to their workers. In hundreds
of cases a farm worker who was perhaps earning Z$10 or 15 thousand a month
is walking away with amounts of up to half and even three quarters of a million
dollars. Everyone who ever worked on a farm, even for a month weeding between a
line of maize, is climbing on the bandwagon demanding they be paid retrenchment.
A friend told me this week how the relatives of a worker who had died of alcohol
abuse four years ago were claiming the retrenchment package. Another told of a
worker who, dismissed for theft, tried and convicted, had also arrived demanding
a million dollar package.To anyone not living in Zimbabwe this probably sounds
hysterically funny but it isn't. You cannot just tell these people to go away
and stop being inane, you have to go to a "hearing" at the local Labour offices.
Here dozens of people wait for many many hours in dark, filthy corridors for a
physically and mentally exhausted official to finally see you. It has turned
into a nightmare of plain and simple extortion and is so utterly tragic to see
people abandoning pride and dignity because they know there is no
law.
One farmer told me how she paid out the
retrenchment package and watched her elderly, jobless, homeless and barely
literate employee take a wad of 50 thousand dollars and blow it all in one
weekend at the nearby bottle store. There is no one to help these people invest
their money and no one to give them advice or guidance and so some just drink
their lives and futures away, drowning their sorrows for today. There are also
hundreds of farmers who literally do not have the money to pay out these huge
amounts of money. The legislation says that in these cases half the amount must
be paid on vacation of the farm and the balance when the government pays
compensation to the farmer. Both farmer and worker know the chances of
government compensation ever actually materializing is virtually nil and so
there is a stalemate. If the farmer refuses to pay then a mob arrive at the
gate, bang tins and light fires, barricade you into your home and say that you
had better start selling things in order to pay them.
Amidst these horrific scenes is the even
bigger tragedy that we are all looking at every day. In less than a month the
summer crops are due to be in the ground and the men and women who have the
experience, expertise and capital to grow this food are not allowed to do so. In
an area near where I live there are only 12 farmers left out of 76 in the
district. Many of the homes have been taken over by politicians and army
personnel, greenhouses for export flowers have been dismantled, tobacco seed
beds have not been planted, there are no cattle to be seen and the fields stand
barren and unprepared. All this for a cause which is neither about land nor race
but politics. There is a Zulu saying which warns that: "The infant who does not
cry, will die on the back of its mother." Zimbabwe is crying but no one hears
us. Until next week, with love, cathy.
CNN
Commonwealth: Zimbabwe turmoil won't hamper African aid
September
14, 2002 Posted: 6:03 PM EDT (2203 GMT)
UNITED NATIONS (AP)
-- The political turmoil in Zimbabwe will not jeopardize
Africa's efforts to
attract foreign aid and pursue economic reforms, the
chairman of Commonwealth
nations said Saturday.
In the first ever meeting of Commonwealth foreign
ministers, African
delegates expressed concerns that the crisis in Zimbabwe
would hamper the
continent's renewed efforts to pursue economic reforms and
investment,
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told
reporters.
"Their concern was that African development issues shouldn't
be held up
because of the issue in Zimbabwe, that aid flows, for example, and
support
for economic reform" shouldn't be interrupted by the Zimbabwean
question, he
said.
"But I think there was pretty much a view from the
developed countries, the
donor countries, in the meeting that they wouldn't
allow the Zimbabwean
issue to interfere with the aid programs they have
running in other parts of
Africa," Downer said.
Zimbabwe was thrown
into crisis when President Robert Mugabe began a land
reform program seeking
to drive white farmers from their land.
The Commonwealth, representing
Britain and its former colonies, in March
suspended Zimbabwe from its
decision-making councils for a year after
presidential elections that
monitors say were rigged. Britain and Australia
also imposed sanctions on
Mugabe's regime.
A three-nation committee of Australia, Nigeria and South
Africa are to meet
September 23 in Abuja, Nigeria, to consider further action
against Zimbabwe.
Don McKinnon, the Commonwealth's secretary-general,
said the ministers urged
the committee "to take the issue of Zimbabwe
forward," although they fell
short of coming up with
recommendations.
Zimbabwe's turmoil is exacerbating a food crisis in
southern Africa and
driving displaced farmers and other refugees to its
neighbors, McKinnon
said. Its imploding economy also threatens the region, he
added.
South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President
Olusegun
Obasanjo, who will attend the meeting with Australian Prime Minister
John
Howard, "have tried to play a role through envoys to
encourage
reconciliation in Zimbabwe ... but the envoys have not had
success," Downer
said.
Saturday's meeting, attended by 38 foreign
ministers from the 58-member
Commonwealth, was held on the sidelines of the
annual meeting of the U.N.
General Assembly.
The ministers also
discussed efforts to help member nations combat terrorism
and other regional
issues, but did not bring up the crisis in Iraq, an issue
that has dominated
the U.N. meeting, Downer said.
On Monday, the assembly will interrupt its
general debate for a daylong
special session on a plan launched by African
leaders to promote development
and reduce poverty. The New Partnership for
African Development, or NEPAD,
will seek international investment in Africa
in return for good governance,
fiscal responsibility and respect for human
rights.
Business Day
SA must share blame for Zim:
DA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Democratic Alliance said yesterday it was time for the South
African
government to share moral responsibility for the Zimbabwe
crisis.
The DA said in a media statement that Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe's
land redistribution programme was directly responsible for the
famine in
that country.
The statement was issued in response to
comments by Foreign Minister
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma published in a Cape Town
newspaper.
"Since (the Zimbabweans) have done it their way, I don't think
we can
reverse that," she was quoted as saying about land grabs in
Zimbabwe.
DA leader Tony Leon said the comments not only admitted to the
failure of
the South African government's policy of quiet diplomacy, but also
to a lack
of commitment to the democratic principles over which Mugabe had
ridden
roughshod.
"This amounts to nothing less than tacit support for
the Mugabe regime's
lawless land reform programme and an implicit
renunciation of each and every
core principle of Nepad," he said.
Leon
said that shifting the focus from trying to get Mugabe to change his
chosen
route to dealing with the famine in the region and assisting the
ailing
Zimbabwean economy, was a "denial of reality."
He said it was only by
getting Mugabe to change his chosen route, and adopt
an orderly and legal
land reform programme, that South Africa would
influence Britain to resume
their funding of Zimbabwe's land reform
programme.
"If the South
African government is not prepared to accept this role as
regional
powerhouse, then it must accept its share of the blame for the
collapse of
our northern neighbour and the collateral damage which that is
going to cause
the entire region, including South Africa," Leon said.
Sapa
Commonwealth Delegate Slams Zim Land Grab
The Namibian <http://allafrica.com/publishers.html?passed_name=The%20Namibian&passed_location=Windhoek>
(Windhoek)
September 12, 2002
Chrispin Inambao
A SENIOR
delegate at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) underway in Windhoek
expressed concern on Tuesday about the manner in which the government of
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is handling land reform in Zimbabwe.
Addressing over 450 delegates attending the CPC, the Speaker of St
Lucia's parliament, Matthew Roberts, said members of the Commonwealth "should
expect that in pursuit of any legislative agenda aimed at reducing poverty, a
government would ensure that democratic principles are observed, lest the
outcome of a legislative programme yields more insecurity and greater long-term
poverty of the very people intended to benefit from such a programme".
"I say this with Zimbabwe in mind. It is difficult to understand how the
parliament of Zimbabwe could have sanctioned Robert Mugabe's controversial land
reform programme as a strategy to alleviate poverty and enhance the security of
the people of Zimbabwe," said the parliamentary speaker.
He said that
perhaps Mugabe was not concerned with poverty reduction or the social
empowerment of the black population.
"Indeed he has said that his
so-called land reform policy, with the blessings of Parliament aims to correct
the colonial injustice which left most of the best farmlands in the hands of
white farmers," said Roberts.
He said Mugabe, instead of attending to
the issues of poverty-alleviation and disaffection among blacks, "seems bent on
pursuing a campaign of racial hatred, revenge and nepotism, which has resulted
in several deaths of white farmers, and destruction of some of the very
properties intended for the so-called landless war veterans".
Mugabe, he
said, has created an outrage which has effectively shifted the focus from issues
of poverty to racial inequality.
"It is therefore my prayer that no
other parliament will sanction such a reckless approach in its country's fight
against poverty and inhuman insecurity," he said.
The CPC conference,
which started on Sunday, is being attended by delegates from 54 parliaments. It
ends on Saturday.
The role of women parliamentarians in conflict
resolution and the successes and failures of policies to prevent the spread of
HIV-AIDS are among the issues to be discussed at the conference.Copyright © 2002
The Namibian.
News24
Zim police arrest journalist
Harare - Zimbabwe police have
arrested a journalist with a private daily
paper days after he wrote a story
alleging the country's police chief was in
poor health, the state-run news
agency said Saturday.
Ziana quoted Norman Mlambo, the editor of the Daily
Mirror saying journalist
Tawanda Majoni was in police custody, but said he
did not know on what
charge.
The paper had reported Majoni missing in
its Friday edition, Ziana said.
Majoni wrote an article in the first
edition of the recently-launched paper
alleging Police Commissioner Augustine
Chihuri was unhealthy and unfit for
duty. The report was immediately
dismissed by Chihuri as untrue.
Contacted for comment, police
spokesperson Bothwell Mugariri told AFP he was
not aware of the reporter's
arrest.
The Daily Mirror article prompted an angry response from
Information
Minister Jonathan Moyo. He was quoted as saying that if the
paper's editor
could not run "a professional paper, the law will have to
assist him."
Under tough press laws introduced this year, publishing
false information is
punishable by a stiff fine, a prison sentence, or both.
- Sapa-AFP
IOL
Jailed Zimbabwean judge gets his day in court
September
14 2002 at 01:41PM
Harare - A retired white Zimbabwe judge
arrested on charges of "defeating
the course of justice" appeared in court on
Saturday after his arrest
earlier this week.
Former High Court Judge
Fergus Blackie, 65, was arrested at his home on
Friday morning on charges of
irregularly handling a criminal case before his
retirement in
July.
Earlier this year, Blackie was criticised by the government for
sentencing
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa to three months in prison for
contempt of
court.
That sentence, imposed on Chinamasa after he failed
to appear in court to
answer charges of criticising the High Court, was
overturned. The government
threatened to investigate the judge for "gross
abuse of judicial office".
Blackie's lawyer, Raphael Costa said that
an order for the judge to appear
in court had been granted. "We'll be filing
a further application for the
judge's release," he said.
Concerns have
been voiced abroad and at home over a perceived erosion of the
rule of law in
Zimbabwe and reports that the southern African country's
judges are being
intimidated.
Blackie was the seventh white judge to leave the country's
courts since the
forced early retirement of the Supreme Court chief justice
in March 2001.
Only one white judge remains on the bench.
The official
Herald newspaper on Saturday reported that Blackie is facing
charges of
"breaching the Prevention of Corruption Act or alternatively,
defeating the
course of justice".
The paper reported that while still a judge, Blackie
had heard an appeal
case in which he quashed the conviction and ordered the
release of a white
woman jailed for theft without consulting a fellow black
judge who also
heard the case. - Sapa-AFP
News Update - Saturday 14 September 2002
(On behalf of Justice for
Agriculture)
Chiredzi/Triangle Arrests
An additional cane farmer, Theo
Engels was arrested early evening bring to
13 the number arrested in the
Chiredzi/Triangle area. Of these two were
released as their Section 8 orders
were cancelled in the Administrative
(Land) Court. One person was allowed to
sign a warned and cautioned
statement and was allowed to return home and will
attend Court on Monday.
The remaining 10 spent the night in custody in a
small (6 x 4 meters)
holding cell with 8 other suspects.
Arrests have
continued today with prominent Hotelier / Farmer Digby Nesbitt
and Richard
Lancaster being arrested, bringing those arrested for 'Farming'
to 15 in this
area.
Update Dawson - Kemasembi Farm
The situation on the Dawson
homestead calmed down with the family now able
to come and go.
Update
Leith Bray - Meldon Farm
Mr and Mrs Leith Bray had to be evacuated out of
their home as the mob began
to light fires around the homestead. The Bray
home is under a thatched roof
and it is felt that the risk of a fire setting
alight the house was
extremely high.
Update Kockott - Fumeria
Farm
At approximately 9:15 pm a mob made up of war veterans, settlers and
staff
arrived on the Kockott veranda and settled in for a 'pungwe' (an all
night
political rally). Andy and Sharon Kockott remained in their home all
night.
During the night a group of staff (under pressure) approached the
Kockott's
for some food promising to leave immediately food was made
available. The
Kockott's gave them mealie meal but the mob then continued
with their rally
regardless of the promises made. Kockott has refused to
engage in any
further dialogue this morning and the mob seems to have
disbanded.
It is a widely held view that the current pressure on farmers
coincides with
a political campaign for the contesting of Rural Council
elections. Farm
employees and their families who number approximately one and
a half million
people is a significant constituency to coerce into voting
ZANU PF.
Events last night on the Kockott veranda add weight to this
view. The
Kockott property is no longer listed for acquisition as Kockott won
his land
back through a High Court ruling. The single owned farm is a
Tobacco,
Paprika and Coffee farm.
Kockott described the modus operandi
saying, "They arrived on the veranda
and proceedings began with traditional
dancing and singing lead by war
veterans and settlers. This was interspersed
with lengthy Political speeches
by the war veterans. A couple of workers
whispered to me that they were
under immense pressure and that the veterans
had a roll call every hour or
so. They could not refuse to participate in the
pungwe although they knew it
to be illegal and that they still required their
jobs.
Elsewhere in Mashonaland West a farmer who last year retrenched
over 300
workers as his farms were taken over is barricaded in his office
complex on
his remaining farm. The retrenchment packages paid out to the
ex-employees
were drafted and agreed to by all Labour Unions in the year
2000. A group of
war veterans accompanied by some ex-employees are insisting
that he back pay
additional retrenchment benefits covered in new labour
legislation Statutory
Instrument 6 which allows for the retroactive payment
of benefits. This
matter is still to be decided in a case due to be heard
next week but the
mob are trying to force the issue.
This draconian
legislation is being selectively applied to agriculture but
is also being
mulled for the industrial sector. Whilst these laws are being
selectively
applied they are at odds with the Zimbabwean Constitution. On
the other hand
there could be no possible way these laws could be applied
across the board
in Zimbabwe, as this would bring the country to an economic
standstill. As
the economic meltdown magnifies, retrenchments multiply
across the sectors
including the retrenchment last year of hundreds of
members of the civil
service.
---------------------- Background info - filed 13 Sept
2002
Twelve farmers from the Triangle/Chiredzi have been arrested under
section 8
legislation and are due to spend the weekend in jail. They are Dave
des
Fountaine, Pete Wenham, Henri Souchon, Aleck Geddie, Graham Babbf,
Benori
Fayd'herb, Fred Blatchford, Jeremy Baldwin, and four
others.
The farmers all have section 8 orders and are part of the Cane
Growers
Association who are taking representative action against the orders
in court
today. It is thought that this action would still
proceed.
Meanwhile in the Tengwe farming area another four farmers are
presently
barricaded in their homes by war veterans who are demanding that
they pay
off their workers and vacate their farms, despite the nullification
of their
section 8 orders in the High Court.
The four are Andy Kockott
of Tengwe Estates, Leith Bray of Meldon Farm,
Simon and Peter Dawson of
Kemasembi Farm.
According to Andy Kockott, who is a single farm owner,
his workers have not
been allowed to work since Saturday when the war
veterans instructed the
Kockott's to leave the farm by 2pm on
Sunday.
Police arrived on Monday and inquired why he was still on the
farm, to which
he explained that there was no official document or order for
the eviction,
only an illegal verbal notice issued by the war
veterans.
Patrick Maponga, a retired army officer and well known war
veteran in the
area visited the farm on Tuesday and gave the family a further
ultimatum to
leave by 6pm that evening to leave.
As of Friday (13th)
noon, the situation was at a standoff following the
arrival on Thursday of a
small contingent of war veterans. As the group
arrived at the farm, Mr.
Kockott took a photograph of them as they
approached his back door. At that
moment, the war veterans ran away and
proceeded to the farm village where
they rounded up all the workers and
walked them down to the main
road.
The war veterans then sent a delegation, including a few workers,
to have a
meeting with Kockott. As the meeting was due to commence, a vehicle
carrying
Red Cross personnel arrived. They had coincidentally come to assess
the
situation on the ground about farm workers and their families. The
observed
the meeting proceedings.
The war veterans complained that Mr,
Kockott had already ignored 3 evictions
and a police directive to leave the
farm and insisted that he pay his
workers their retrenchment
packages.
Mr. Kockott insisted that there were no legal grounds upon
which the war
veterans could evict him from his home or compel him to pay off
his workers.
These discussions went on for about an hour before the
foreman and one of
the farm drivers approached Mr. Kockott and informed him
that they wished to
continue working. They asked that the police be called in
so that they could
address the war veterans in the presence of police
officers. However, the
police refused to attend to the scene.
The Red
Cross personnel left the farm soon after and the war veterans
continued to
demand that Mr. Kockott should sit down with his workers and
negotiate within
the hour (i.e. by 4pm), retrenchment packages. However, Mr.
Kockott refused
to give in to their demands and informed them that
Government &
Agricultural Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) and
National
Employment Council (NEC) officials were expected on the farm to
aid
negotiations.
The problems intensified Friday with other farmers
being barricaded in. On
Leith Bray's Meldon Farm a group of war veterans have
surrounded the
homestead completely and are trying to break into the house.
Mr and Mrs Bray
are in an end room and are in radio contact. The war veterans
have also
pushed cattle into the Bray's security fence.
The situation
has settled down on the Dawson's Kemasembi Farm. According to
Simon Dawson,
the group of about 45 - 50 people has now moved off and two
representatives
were at lunch time speaking to the NEC. Earlier, members of
the group had
held hostage Simon's brother Timothy for four hours during
which they pushed
him around and threatened him. They also let the air out
of the tires on his
vehicle to prevent him from getting away. He did not
sustain any
injuries.
All the farmers are currently in the process of grading tobacco
crops which
they should be able to do as they have High court orders allowing
them to
continue farming.
Ends
(13 September 2002)
For more
info, please contact Jenni Williams
Mobile (+263) 91 300456 or 11213 885 or
on email jennipr@mweb.co.zw
Or Fax
(+2639) 63978 or (+2634) 703829 Office email: prnews@mweb.co.zw
ABC Australia
Howard to meet CW leaders over Zimbabwe action
The
possibility of imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe will be discussed next
week
when Prime Minister John Howard convenes another meeting of the
Commonwealth
leaders troika in Nigeria.
Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth
six months ago over concerns
about the Government's conduct in an election
that saw the regime of Prime
Minister Robert Mugabe returned to
power.
Mr Howard will leave for Nigeria next Saturday to meet South
African
President Thabo Mbeki and Nigeria's President Olusegun
Obasanjo.
Mr Howard says the discussion will focus on Zimbabwe's
worsening political
and humanitarian situation.
"Zimbabwe has been
quite indifferent to the requests properly made of her by
the Commonwealth
and we want to talk about what might further be done in
relation to that," Mr
Howard said.
But Mr Howard says he will not pre-empt the outcome of the
meeting.
"There are a range of options available to the Commonwealth but
in the end
of course, individual countries - whether they're in the
Commonwealth or
not, can choose to take action, but it's not an easy
position," Mr Howard
said.
"The internal situation in Zimbabwe is
deteriorating very rapidly," he said.
The leaders can either impose
sanctions or expel Zimbabwe from the
Commonwealth.