Press statement by Justice for Agriculture
New Deadline for Embattled
Farmers
HARARE (06/09/2002)
Hundreds of commercial farmers
countrywide have been given until noon on
Sunday 8 September 2002 to vacate
their farms. This new directive has
been conveyed to farmers via District
Administrators and local police
chiefs and affects all farmers who have been
issued with Section 8
notices, regardless of the fact that scores of farmers
have had their
eviction notices overturned by the High Court.
This
latest move by the government is a direct contradiction of
President Mugabe's
statement to the World Summit on Sustainable
Development earlier this week
where he declared that each farmer would
be left with one farm and that the
land reform programme is being done
in accordance with the rule of law as
enshrined in our national
constitution and laws.
Justice for
Agriculture Vice-Chairman, John Worswick, has called the new
deadline an
insult to the country's judicial system, a blatant disregard
of the
Zimbabwean constitution and yet another blow to those farmers and
farm
workers still trying to maintain production in the face of
state-sanctioned
harassment and violence.
JAG has received numerous reports from farmers
in Matabeleland,
Mashonaland West and Mashonaland Central who have been
ordered to remove
all their equipment, belongings and themselves from their
farms by
midday on Sunday or face arrest. They have also been told that
any
equipment left behind will be forfeited to the State. The vast
majority
of farmers affected by this latest move have had their Section 8
notices
overturned by the High Court.
Of particular concern to JAG is
the apparent increased involvement of
the state military and security
organisations in this latest
unconstitutional (and in many cases illegal)
attempt to evict commercial
farmers.
We call on farmers who have the
legal right to remain on their land to
stand firm against this latest threat
to commercial agriculture, and we
call upon the regional and international
community to recognise the
plight of farmers and farm workers, and their
desire to maintain some
semblance of normal farming production.
Could
all those farmers off their farms and currently located in Harare
please come
to a meeting with JAG chairman Dave Connolly on Monday
evening to discuss the
present situation. The venue and time of the
meeting will be confirmed at a
later date: please get in contact with
one of our hotline numbers as detailed
below.
For further information please contact
Hotline1: 011 205
374
Hotline2: 091 317 264
Legal:
Wynand Hart: 011 207
860
John Worswick: 011 612 595
Justice for Agriculture (JAG) is a
crisis management group, set up by
concerned Zimbabweans who are focussed on
seeking a clear way forward on
the land issue through the judiciary and the
Courts, whilst exposing the
inadequacies and corruption in the current
system.
Press statement by Justice for Agriculture
The News
Room
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Dear Friends
That is the LAST time I am reading "Celesta's" daily horoscope
in the Daily News - her prediction for Andy started off with "Another good day"
as Jupiter was still rising. The only thing rising was the toxic elements in
RGM's brain. We had our first tobacco sale and it went fine (apart from the
daylight robbery on the fixed exchange rate!) but we got home at about 6.45p.m.
to hear that a little delegation of cops and CIO had been around telling all
farmers in Tengwe and Karoi with Section 8's to be off by 2.00p.m. on Sunday -
any assets left behind are being confiscated to pay the workers' terminal
benefits. They told several farmers personally ad then went to the club (there
is social tennis on Thhursday afternoon/evenings) and told Sean our Farmers Ass
chairman that this applied to all Sectin 8 farmers "regardless". They didn't
specify what "regardless" meant. Today they visited a lot more and gave the same
message. They arrived here at about 5.00p.m. Andy and I tried to video them and
record them but that caused consternation and we were told that was "illegal".
Andy went into full lecture mode and told them that RGM says 1 farmer 1 farm is
the rule ect etc and although they didn't want to they left with copies of the
high court ruling - probably tossed them out the window in the vlei. From here
they went up to the barns and told our workers that if anyone pitches for work
tomorrow the Black Boots (Police Support Unit) was going to come and stuff them
up. Presumably even if we had the means (about 30 rigs) to load all the
equipment and tobacco, we would have to load it ourselves. They also told Nigel
Loney that if farmers were here on Sunday, it won't just be an arrest like last
time, "it will be much worse!" I remember reading Tertia Geldenhuys' letter
when all their home got trashed and she said that you look around and realise
nothing is precious and yet everything is precious.
We heard about an hour ago that a guy and his wife in
Glendale, and their mechanic, have been arrested for contravening their Section
9 (they don't have one - they had their Section 8 overturned in the
administrative court) and for malicious damage to govt. property - they had
removed some light fittings. Craig Werritt had the cops come in and close down
his grading shed and his foreman was arrested. These eviction notices are being
served all over Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central and in Matabeleland. We
are trying to get as much publicity as possible.
All this can be laid at the door of the delegates to the
International Summit for Sustainable Development (ISSD) who gave RGM and Nujoma
of Namibia such warm applause after their tirades. RGM came back from there and
told an ululating crowd of sycophants that some farmers had "co-operated" but
some had not and if we wished to stay here, we would have to stay in prison -
especially the likes of Roy Bennet and David Coultart (both elected MP's)
although why Coultart? He is a lawyer not a farmer.
I have never thought I underestimated the extent to which RGM
would go but I have evidently done so. If we are arrested despite the high court
ruling, then they might as well fire all the judges and lawyers as they will be
surplus to requirements and merely a drain on an economy already bleeding to
death.
So what do you think our chances are?
Daily News
Leader Page
The crisis of political leadership in
Zimbabwe
9/6/02 2:25:48 PM (GMT +2)
Zimbabwe
is sadly going to crumble because of the chaos created by the
ruling Zanu PF
party and opposition MDC leadership as a result of their
infiltration by
capitalists, cowards, opportunists and mercenaries.
The
capitalists in these political parties have entered politics
strictly to
protect their interests at the expense of ordinary peasants
and
workers.
In the MDC these are the very people opposed to
mass action because
they value their property which could be destroyed in
such action. They
value their property more than the pain of the ordinary
people that might be
salved through destruction of their possessions. In Zanu
PF this group will
advocate for the introduction of such oppressive laws as
the Public and
Order Security Act to protect their property. They will also
champion laws
such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
in order to
arrest all the journalists who may investigate and report on
their
corruption and misappropriation of public funds. But these groups do
not
play a major role in the destruction of their parties and the nation as
a
whole, because they compete with other more dangerous groups, which I
will
analyse here.
Let's now look at the cowards. This group is
not only afraid of
respective leaders in their political parties, but also
are also terrified
of speaking the truth, especially when senior party
members are involved or
implicated.
Thus, in the MDC and Zanu PF
there are people who are prepared to
avoid the truth because they are afraid
of what President Mugabe or Morgan
Tsvangirai might say about their
stance.
Their negative contribution is that they propagate the cult
of sacred
cows which finally leads to the collapse of their political
parties. The
cowards in the opposition will destroy their party through their
desire for
peace talks with the party that brought independence through the
liberation
struggle. This group will discourage any form of action, given the
brutality
with which the police and the army handle people demonstrations
against the
government. The presence of the riot police is enough to scare
them even
from their offices where they are supposed to reside to represent
the
people. Another shocking group of leaders consists of the
opportunists.
These are the leaders who entered politics by mistake to make
mistakes in
their parties. In Zanu PF we have leaders who suddenly find
themselves
having government posts which they don't deserve, in terms of the
maturity
expected of someone entering into the government.
In
the MDC this group was mainly brought in by the overwhelming
protest against
Zanu PF by the people of Zimbabwe during the 2000
parliamentary election. The
people ended up voting for some MPs because of
their love for the president
of the opposition but not necessarily the
candidate whom they voted
for.
The group also entered Zanu PF in the same way. This is where
Zanu PF
candidates will display a campaign poster with a big picture of
themselves
and a small one of Mugabe in a corner of the poster.
This led to Zanu PF supporters voting for their party or the president
of the
party instead of the candidates who campaigned and won. This group is
lucky
to be in power and consists of people who are prepared to continue to
cling
to power without giving room for the younger generation in their
political
parties to take over. This group is mainly sustained by the final
group - the
mercenaries in these two political parties. The mercenaries
consist of the
larger percentage of the leadership in the two parties.
This is the
group which when Robert Mugabe (in the case of Zanu PF) or
Morgan Tsvangirai
(in the case of MDC) says: "Jump!" they ask how high they
ought to jump,
instead of why they have to jump in the first place.
The group of
mercenaries organises dubious programmes on behalf of the
party. These
programmes are not in good faith, as they will never reach
targeted people in
their constituencies since they are money-spinning and
meant to benefit the
individual mercenaries, not the community. This group
is very dangerous
because it has spread the urge for money to the ordinary
supporters whom they
supply with material resources in return for biased
support that is not
merit-oriented. The majority of this group is made up of
MPs who stay in
low-density suburbs. A number of Zanu PF MPs who represent
rural areas are
comfortably housed in low-density suburbs, while a number of
MDC MPs who were
voted in by the high-density residents are now so rich they
don't live in
those areas anymore.
This group is dangerous because it consists of
leaders who entered
politics to make money. To them politics is more of an
income-generating
business or profession than for representation of the
people's will or
interests. If the MDC and Zanu PF fail to get rid of the
groups by
dismissing them I am certain that:
* The MDC will find
it difficult to remove Zanu PF from power and will
remain in opposition for
ever;n Zanu PF will find it difficult to completely
destroy the opposition
and win the majority support of the people, as it did
in the 1980s;
and
* The two political parties will never reconcile.
This is the crisis of leadership we have in Zimbabwe.
ZIMBABWE: Displaced fleeing to towns to escape violence
IRINnews
Africa, Fri 6 Sep 2002
© Lewis Machipisa
Police implicated in political violence and intimidation
JOHANNESBURG, - Political violence and intimidation in Zimbabwe's
rural areas
is forcing victims to flee to major towns and cities, the
Zimbabwe Human
Rights Association (ZimRights) warned in its latest report.
Many of
the displaced, who reportedly have escaped with little but the
clothes on
their backs, have become stranded in urban areas without food,
shelter or
medical care.
ZimRights said supporters of both the ruling party
ZANU-PF, and the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), have been
victims and
perpetrators of the political violence. However, "the majority of
victims
were assaulted, arrested, detained and chased from their homes by the
police
and ZANU-PF supporters," the organisation noted.
ZimRights had received "a plethora of political violence cases from
Buhera
North, Chipinge and Chimanimani [in the eastern Manicaland Province]
during
the months of July and August 2002".
Apart from the destruction of
homes and property, "relatives and
children of supporters of the MDC were
tortured, assaulted and subjected to
various forms of inhumane and degrading
treatment".
"Interviews with the victims who thronged ZimRights
head offices in
[the capital] Harare reveal that the problem has reached
unprecedented
levels," ZimRights said.
In August alone,
ZimRights helped 152 "cases" at its head office. The
group called for urgent
humanitarian aid to displaced persons in Harare, and
other
cities.
It also warned that the level of violence was increasing as
the
country braced for local council elections to be held later this
month.
"Buhera North has been specifically targeted because it is
the home
area of the president of the MDC [Morgan Tsvangirai]. Police
details
operating in the area have been assaulting, arresting and detaining
people
for no just cause," ZimRights alleged.
The police had
also teamed up with ZANU-PF youth militias and the
perpetrators of violence
were not being arrested, the rights group said.
However, police
spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena denied that the police were
acting in "cahoots
with ZANU-PF".
"It's a false allegation. We go in to arrest people
when they commit
an offence, irrespective of their political allegiance. We
don't need
support from any groups of people," he told IRIN.
Meanwhile, in a rare interview with foreign journalists on
Thursday,
President Robert Mugabe said his government's seizure of
white-owned farms
had not contributed to the country's food
shortages.
"If anything, it's the only way you can empower people
to produce, not
just for subsistence, but to enable them to enjoy life and to
enable the
country to continue to export maize," the Associated Press quoted
him as
saying.
The World Food Programme estimates that about six
million Zimbabweans
are threatened with hunger over the next six
months.
The food crisis has been blamed on a severe drought during
the growing
season, and Mugabe's land redistribution programme.
Last month, 2,900 white commercial farmers were ordered to leave their
land.
Many disobeyed the order, and about 300 were arrested, most of whom
have
since been released on
bail.
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UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs 2002
From L. C.
Marondera Update 5th Sept 2002
We have moved off our single
farm a month ago, after more than two years of violence, intimidation, death
threats and other obscene behaviour levelled at ourselves and our workers by
"war vets", and Zanu pf supporters. These activities have been fostered,
directed, organised, and bankrolled by the state in the form of the Provincial
Administrator, District Administrator, the Ministry of Agriculture, other arms
of local Govt and the ZRP Marondera. These branches of the civil service have
become mere functionaries of
Zanu pf - they indeed will say so openly,
betraying the fact that they can no longer make a distinction between the
Government and a political party.
Our workers, and their families,
numbering 400 people, have been dispersed far and wide. Most of them still keep
in touch with us, we have been together for a long time and we have a good
relationship..They would all like their jobs back, with which came, free, a
comfortable house, running water, electricity, a preschool, a farm health
worker, a farm store, medical & Hiv/Aids care, and a primary school which
was built and supported by our farm and other farms in the area. Most important
of all, they were assured
of a regular subsidized food supply , plus the
product of a maize crop which was grown by the workers but for which we, the
farmer, supplied free inputs such as seed, fertiliser, irrigation etc. All of
these benefits are now gone, their former homes have been invaded by the Zanu pf
supporters who took over our farm, as has our home. All the social programmes we
were running have completely stopped. These formerly productive, hard working
people are now drifting about, desperate for some way to make a living,
feed
their families, and send their kids to school. Most of them do not have
land in the communal areas, although some have managed to " buy" plots there.
Only 3 of our workers were resettled, under the "fast track" program. Life for
our two foremen is also complicated by the fact that rural areas are now
completely under the control of zanu pf. They are known to be ex farm
workers
and are suspected to be Mdc supporters. They are harrased by Zanu pf militants
as soon as they show their faces in their rural homes, with the result that they
have had to establish some sort of home elsewhere, it is just too uncomfortable
for them to maintain homes in their own areas - they are social lepers. This is
a problem for quite a lot of our workers, and will become more of a problem as
food aid becomes increasingly politicised. I myself saw a lorry load of aid
maize meal being transported into
Marondera, complete with a contingent of
youth militia sitting on top of it. These youths decide who gets to come to the
front of the queue and who goes to the back, and are frequently involved in
buying the food themselves and re selling it at huge profit. In Harare maize
meal is $800/20kg and another $150 to get it milled.
On our farm, the
workers' houses and our house have now been occupied by the settlers, although
they are supposed to have established homes for themselves long ago, as our farm
was invaded in June 2000. All the social programmes we were running have ceased
completely, as has all attempts at conservation. The settlers are now busy
chopping down hardwood indigenous trees to
sell for firewood, and poaching
all the game on the farm. All attempts at farming has also ground to a halt,
there were only about 4 ha ploughed on our farm when I flew over it a few weeks
ago, - all in wetlands, which is exceedingly bad farming practice, especially
from a conservation viewpoint. They have abandoned the wheat crop they planted
at the beginning of June. Our highly developed irrigation system and our
state-of-the- art tobacco facilities are lying idle, being steadily looted, and
will never operate again. The
ruling party has never tried to hide their aim,
which is to completely control all rural areas, remove all potential
opposition/human rights activity, and reduce the country to abject poverty and
starvation. Only then will they feel secure.
I do not believe we will
ever return there, nor do I believe that this regime will compensate us for our
property. As for our future, we are not in a state of mind to be making
decisions about that at this stage, we need some time to recover from losing our
home, the business we started with such energy and dedication 12 years ago and
the loss of our community, all destroyed to preserve the power of one
individual. I am confident that other farming possibilities exist in Africa, but
it will be very difficult to trust another African leader, especially in view of
their continued support of this regime.
I do hope that the G8 leaders
were paying attention to the disgusting behaviour of the African delegates to
the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg this week, who
applauded Robert Mugabe after his presentation. These are the very same people
who, with honeyed tongues, recently made promises in Canada about good
governance, democracy & human
rights.The likes of Thabo Mbeki and senior
South African Government and ANC officials must be seen for what they are, a
sham, who place no value on any of the above issues, merely paying lip service
to it, while eagerly taking notes on how to pull off massive electoral fraud .
That goes for the rest of the SADC leaders, also, as evidenced by their refusal
to condemn the Mugabe regime's disgraceful human rights record, and their
refusal to acknowledge that the crisis in this country is about poor governance,
total
lack of the rule of law, and the wilful starvation and abuse of an
entire nation.