via Former farmers take Mugabe to US court October 31, 2013 by Everson Mushava NewsDay
FORMER Zimbabwe white commercial farmers have taken President Robert Mugabe’s government to United States courts where they are demanding compensation and challenging the compulsory acquisition of their farms under the land reform programme.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development minister Joseph Made told delegates attending the Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) Conversations in Harare yesterday that Lands minister Douglas Mombeshora was attending the court case in the US.
“Those with questions for Mombeshora can ask. I am also representing the Minister of Lands, who is in America to attend a court case in which the government has been challenged by some commercial farmers,” Made said.
He said taking the government to court by the Commercial Farmers’ Union defied the spirit of dialogue between the two parties.
President Mugabe’s administration has been fighting court battles with some commercial farmers who lost their farms at the height of the land reform programme in 2002.
Mugabe’s move to take the land from the white commercial farmers without compensation created a serious stand-off between the country and the Western powers, particularly Zimbabwe’s former colonial master Britain, whose citizens controlled the country’s prime land.
The ensuing face-off resulted in Mugabe and his Zanu PF party members being placed on travel and trade restrictions.
Several efforts by the displaced farmers to challenge Mugabe in the country’s courts yielded no results, until the farmers approached the Sadc Tribunal in Namibia before the regional court halted operations amid pressure from Mugabe’s regime. Made said there was need for government to support infrastructural development on new farms, and support the whole value chain by lowering the costs of production.
Speaking at the same event, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said the government was looking for public-private partnerships with business to attract foreign investment in every sector of the economy, including infrastructural development and agriculture.
COMMENTS
So our government sends people to the US to defend such a case? Pathetic.
There is a serious need for those commenting and the journalist to read base law prior to writing,
International law in the case of land in all agreements is the law of the country in which the land is situate.
Thus, no other country has jurisdiction over land disputes in Zimbabwe.
Only someone with zero expertise would try a case in the US, just a publicity gimic or con.
This is fact even if a case was successful somewhere else they have no jurisdiction over Zimbabwe.
I t is irritating to read comments from those who obviously struggled with O levels and have zero knowledge of the law.
Illustrating the expertise of local lawyers they said you need an expert in international law, when in fact any fool can search on google and find international law does not exist and Zimbabwe law is applicable in the case of land situated locally.
Any one who believes such an article is a fool – do they think if a case was won in the US that the US sheriff would travel to Zimbabwe to take possession of a farm-what idiots.
Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said the government was looking for public-private partnerships with business to attract foreign investment in every sector of the economy, including infrastructural development and agriculture with these stupid policies they have in zim just forget about Zanu Madonki evanhu
Black Zimbabweans have a problem with anyone who sets 1980 as the time everyhing started. Zimbabwe was occupied in 1890, and all land issues should have that date as the base upon which all discussions are held. Pretending that 1980 should be the base date is misplaced and will not solve any problem.
It is unhelpful for the West to pretend that they are not aware of the pre-1980 events in this country. This only reinforces our belief that they are only interested in whites in this country, and not the other races.
Is it odd that a white Zimbabwean should queue with his fellow black citizens for land allocation?
Why not set 1980 as a baseline? Mugabe invited the farmers to stay – only to steal everything when it suited him. Why have they [the farmers] not been compensated for the development to the land? Why has Zimbabwe had to import maize for the last decade? Zimbabwe is vulnerable now – and so we will persist with forcing compensation.
This matter doesnt begin and end with Mugabe. The summary reads like;
1890 : Whites invade and occupy Zimbabwe
1951 : Land Husbandry Act is passed, skewed in favour of whites
1966 : Blacks take up arms to liberate themselves
1979 : Britain promises to pay white farmers for land
1980 : Zimabwe attains independence
1995 : White farmers are consulted by government on the need to share land with their fellow black citizens. They refuse to cooperate
1997 : Britain reverses commitment to pay white farmers
1998 : Blacks respond by occupying a white farm in Mash East
1998 : All stakeholders meet at HICC (Zimbabwe Land Reform Conference). Nothing comes of it.
Thereafter, blacks could no longer wait for the Government to do anything about land reform, since the Govt had been betrayed by Britain and could no longer fund land reform. So we had to take the land, with or without the government’s consent. This is not a Mugabe issue. We did not need his or anyone’s consent to take back our land. But we are happy he supported the people’s actions.
Please provide references for your facts – otherwise these are not facts, just zanu (racist) propaganda.
@ machakchake
Ok – so you start at 1890. What about the Ndebele who arrived ~50 years earlier? And why not go back further? Did the Shona always live here – no they ‘invaded’ too. Your arguments are baseless.
I just came across your posting. You seem to have forgotten or missed line 1) which should have read as follows
1) Mzilikazi crossed into Zimbabwe 1830. He took it over :his son Lobenguela became first and last king of the Matabele
Undeniable facts
i understood that the farmers were Zimbabwe citizens. Obviously, being white that is not the case. Racism anyone?
Why start at 1890 , why not go back to before that , who says 1890 is a good date . Why is the white man the only problem you can think of. Who did the shona “take” the land from ? lets give it ALL back to the bushman , and get all of the shona and Ndebele out. My question is , when do you start counting ? and apportioning blame…….only when the white man does something ??, that is wrong
@PF, I see your query goes unanswered. The logic defies them because it doesn’t fit the Marxist ZANUPF mantra.
The land area we presently call “Zimbabwe” was ‘occupied’ (or invaded) by southward-travelling Bantu around 1000-1800AD. They displaced (often forcibly) the existing peoples, and took up residence.
So if you want to start on occupation and reocompense, 1890 is just the last of a number of such land occupations. Making that one the focus of all your negative behaviour is simple small-minded thinking for selfish purposes. Something ZANU is very good at.
No investment in Zimbabwe until the former commercial farmers are compensated!
You are at it again with your COMPENSATION mantra. You represent whose interests here?
I can remember Mugabe saying “We will pay them for their land”, then came “WE will pay them for their improvements and imputs”. In the end he paid for nothing. Now he must pay – you have to learn there are consequences to everything. It is not Mucha to do about nothing unfortunately
Yes and we will persist with the compensation mantra until we die – and our children will pick it up from there. It will never go away. No aid until compensation is paid.
@ William Doctor
Uku ndokutorwara nepfungwa kwakupinda bhururu. Muchizvinetserei henyu kuramba mongoti toda compansation?
No-one asked you to develop anything when your thieving grandfathers partitioned Africa. You actually destroyed peacifull, beautiful and majestic African ecosystems. If anything, the need to sue you for environmental damage is ever increasing. Plus,don’t forget, you are beneficiaries of colonialism. You stole by invasion, you were dispossesed by invasion. Ihondo mukoma munochemei? If a thief brakes into a house to rob its occupants, and sudenly a storm starts, and this thief patches the leaking roof of this house he is robbing so that he keeps himself dry from the rain whilst busy robbing, shall he also demand compansation for patching the roof when the rain stops and he is caught and made to leave? Isn’t that stupidity? SO let your children raise their voices, no piddling cent will be paid to a thief for making a ladder to acces the balcony inorder tofacilitate more shameless thieving. And befor it is forgoten, no-one wants your ill-gotten donations. It is on record western donor funds were accumulated from African Slave trade, theft of Middle East oil, African diamonds and so forth. Who needs to beg from a thief? The only option the west deserves is to be chucked out of Africa, then you will begin to realise how God blessed you with various degrees of poverty in your barren lands. Wait and see. One big turn deserves another.
Shame on you.
And YOU will dig into your treasure chest and feed those who are starving? Feeding hungry bush families is an act of human compassion. Which do you deny… being human or being compassionate?
Stolen property? I suppose, because they are black, it is suitable for Mugabe and ZANUPF heads to become multimillionaires by theft?
You attempt to justify theft by claiming someone else also stole. In what court of law not controlled by ZANUPF does a bank robber claim innocence because someone else robbed a grocery?
The end is that your racial hatred and greed have fed one another in a vicious circle… and your corrupt ZANUPF self-serving is a plight on the land and a destroyer of the people.
But you see, it is you who can not win. Once you have gone to collect your final reward, and all that you stole becomes someone else’s, and ZANUPF is nothing but a dark chapter in the history books, and the hate is turned into reason, Zim will return. Not as a colony, not ruined by a dictator, but as a beautiful, proud, industrious people who chart their own destiny by a fair and democratic means, and once again become the jewel of Africa and breadbasket of nations.
As far as I know, no eco-systems have been “destroyed” by the sort of large-scale commercial farming introduced in the colonial era.
@ shame
Yes, one big turn deserves another – and now another turn will come again. The whites that you hate are not any worse off – we move between the west, the east and Africa with ease – we are wealthy and are highly educated. We will teach our children what happened under Mugabe and will not rest until compensation is paid.
Joseph Made said, “taking the government to court by the Commercial Farmers’ Union defied the spirit of dialogue between the two parties.”
Has there EVER been a dialogue between the two parties? It’s always been Mugabe’s RACIST way, or the highway. Everyone admits that things had to be made more equitable, but Mugabe wouldn’t listen to those who argued for a fair and transparent process that was open to all citizens. How many white farmers have been allocated new farms under the land program?
The White Farmers have been too pompous, too arrogant and stubborn all along. They messed up by refusing to sell land to Govt on “willing buyer-willing seller” program. Shauri yavo.
Be careful Mucha, steal and you will be called a thief, the world is small and the sanctions you cry about may actually protect you from the jail you deserve.
Mugabe is a dictator and a racist. Zimbabwe will be isolated until he leaves, and the farmers are compensated. The farmers will persist with calls for compensation. The Look East policy has achieved very little.
and you know that for sure.how can anybody believe anything that comes out of these idiots mouths.
So now America will force our govt to pay compensation. These white guys never learn. The more they resist the more they lose, the more the delays the more we also resist. Who is the loses???
Except that Zimbabwe is now dependent on western food aid – and you have the shackles of human rights abuse. No we white guys will never learn – and we will never go away either. This [compensation] will continue for generations to come.
Much stated about the “theft” of the land by whites, about “fairness”, and the need to give the land back to the blacks.
1). Does that mean those blacks who worked hard and purchased land and built houses in Europe stole it and must give it all back to some white without compensation? If not, what’s the difference?
2). Why were changes made by Mugabe that resulted in the theft of improvements and machinery?
3). If this is about fairness for blacks, why have the best large farms been allocated to cronies of Mugabe, ZANUPF bigwigs? Some were even given multiple farms, amounting to thousands of hectares. Explain how that involves “fairness”, when others received very small stands, and the vast populace got absolutely nothing.
4). What is fair about allocating land before the polling to buy votes, then taking it back afterwards?
It is obvious that the independence movement was hijacked by greed, graft, fraud, and corruption by those in high positions to enrich themselves at the expense of all others. In the meanwhile, infrastructure maintenance and improvement have been ignored, while Mugabe and ZANUPF bigwigs amassed fortunes of millions of dollars by bribes, and by raiding government coffers and aid funds intended for the people. Due to that greed, millions are literally starving, with nothing to eat, while Mugabe bellyaches because Grace can’t shop for shoes in Paris. Due to all the theft, and threats of further nationalization of businesses, foreign investors are frightened away, enterprises have pulled up stakes and left the country, unemployment has reached 85%, power outages are daily events, medical care is almost nonexistent, and the economy is in complete shambles… while Mugabe spends millions on his birthday bash, and goes to the UN to complain how the EU, UK, and US are so unfair to him.
Mugabe and ZANUPF definition of “Fairness” is them being allowed to steal from the people and destroy Zim with impunity.
What a disgrace to send Mombeshora to the U.S.A whilst Millicent Mombeshora at RBZ was involved with giving Maize & Fertilizer Contracts to a white owned company in RSA that was money laundering from Zimbabwe via South Africa to New York
Kusikufa ndokupi? Murungu akanga atibira taiti ruvengo. Ko zvino imi mazviuraira mhuri henyuzve nhai gushungo navamwe venyu. U own vast masses of land .makapa hama dzenyu . Ko ndirwo rusunguko rwacho here? Is that what we fought for. ? Blood was shed for that country , we lost our people and what benefits us? Musadaro . Zvinotirwadza. Dai makatombobata pfuti dzayo. You were hidding. True heroes died. . Putseke mhani mapenzi heartless people.