via Freeth speaks on ZANU PF’s ‘racist’ rant | SW Radio Africa July 31, 2014 by Nomalanga Moyo
Dispossessed Chegutu farmer Ben Freeth has described as “sad and baseless” attempts by the ZANU PF regime to cast him as a racist in one of its newspapers.
An article carried in the ZANU PF mouthpiece The Patriot last week referred to Freeth as “a pathological racist and “the son-in-law of the late apartheid war criminal, Mike Campbell”.
The attack came after Freeth raised concern over the way the country’s court rulings on land disputes involving white farmers, reflected ZANU PF’s anti-white sentiment.
Freeth’s query followed the Constitutional Court’s recent ruling endorsing the eviction, without compensation, of farmer and double amputee William Stander from his Benjani Ranch in Mwenezi.
The farm was Stander’s only home and source of livelihood but the ConCourt deemed this to be unimportant and rebuked the white farmer for appealing to the courts for help.
Speaking to SW Radio Africa on Thursday, Freeth said it is clear that the ruling party was bent on stirring up racial hatred between black and white Zimbabweans as a strategy for control.
“I work well and interact with black Zimbabweans from all backgrounds and as I speak, I am in the rural areas. So to try to portray me as someone who is racist is wrong but this is the government’s way of causing enmity between the different races.
“It is disgusting that the government has taken away a wheel-chair bound man’s home just because of the colour of his skin. That is the simple truth,” Freeth said.
Freeth predicted that Zimbabwe will continue to rely on food aid as long as the Mugabe government keeps grabbing land from genuine farmers and giving it to people who have no interest or understanding about farming.
Stander’s farm has been given to Mwenezi District Administrator Stanley Chamisa, who has assaulted the disabled farmer in the past over the same property.
“Chamisa already has a full-time job as a DA and farming is also a full-time occupation, and there is no way he will utilise the farm efficiently because he will be in his office. And that is also true of all the other ZANU PF top officials,” said Freeth.
The ZANU PF land grab policy started in 1999, principally as a diversionary tactic. The economy had started crumbling due to the party’s corruption, bad governance and a series of policy errors including military intervention in the DRC, and unbudgeted financial packages for war vets.
Faced with a restive population and no solutions to deteriorating economic and social standards, ZANU PF encouraged war vets to invade white-owned commercial farms. Since then the country has been in economic crisis, with no food, no jobs and no industries.
COMMENTS
Ben you can say what you want and we know your sentiments exactly, but someone said..”there are none so deaf as those who WLL NOT HEAR”. Arrogance and hatred overrides any simple form of intellegence which is notably absent from the zanupf party.
Agree 100% Reverend. I am now so bored and unsurprised with the gibberish rhetoric that drools from the mouths of most of Zanu’s and Biti’s politicians that mostly I can’t be bothered to comment anymore.
That is not the point Angela. Your total lack of interest in the plight of Mr Stander is not helpful.
Doris, you’ve really got some bones to chew with me haven’t you? Just because I got confused with the Danes and the Dutch! I already apologised for my ignorance in that respect. Do you want me to grovel??
What I do take issue with is that you have the nerve to accuse me of a lack of interest in Mr Stander and his situation! You have no idea what I feel about that, or much else from what I can gather.
What I said was that I am bored with most politicians’ rhetoric. And your silly comments.
O.k. Angela – truce.
Doris respect you for what you have done for calling a truce!
Ben very well written and spoken again . Your help and pressure on all fronts is an inspiration to all Zimbabweans black and white , your lead in the SADC case and Latter AU yes very well received mat the fifth continue , Mr Stander our simpathy for you as most of us have been booted of our farms unfortunately your case is different as most cases are , if we keep bickering Angela this is what the PF want , guys stick together and we I’ll all win in the end. Zonke ena mushi but ena Akona rite!!!
I like that Bambazonke…Especially the last part…LOL
Agreed Bambazonke – but please refer the latter part of your comment to Doris.
Whether it is theft of a loaf of bread, a farm or a business, the Lord does not condone theft…read Micah 2 v1-7 and lets pray for deliverance from this greed and persecution….
These so called chefs…..are so afraid of the WHITE MAN……GOT TO STEAL FROM THE BAAS…………SHAME
Zanu is the most racist Government on the planet. Fact. They practice apartheid against the caucasian race who are not allowed to own land to farm, who are not allowed to own businesses in designated industries. Because of the colour of their skin. Zanu’s entire ethos is vile. They are despicable.
Are these ZPF items so blind they cannot see the sword of judgment dangling over them. A coward always points fingers and so in a sense Angela is right: why do we let their ridiculous comments worry us.
Thank you NBS.
Ben you are a respected person keep up the good work
Send this to Ian Scoones. He will say that white Africans aren’t African, even though he is white.
well done Ben, we respect your hard work and dedication to these issues. Everyone needs to speak out now and throw away the fear of the last 34 years, change for the better will be accelerated as soon as everyone does(speak out)
Ben you are a Man amongst Men and your bravery knows no bounds.
Ben Freeth, Angela Wigmore and all those making noises about Mr Stander should realise that the land Mr. Stander farmed belonged to someone else who was probably killed when the land was stollen by Mr. Stander’s ancestors. Funny compensation is only talked of in terms of the userpers of the land and not those from whom the land was stollen. All those fighting land reform should realise that they are wasting their time and that their loud noises will count for nothing in the end. They talk of justice, but only for the caucasians and not for the indigenous people from whom the land was stollen. Anyway, those who stole the land have to look up to us, the people from whom the land was stollen, for the so called compensation. How very good can the situation be????? If thieves want those from whom they stole to pay for their own goods which they will have recovered from the thieves, then there is a good chance that no money will be paid. The thieves or sons and daughters of thieves and murderers can shout as much as they like, they can write and use millions of burrels of ink and killometers, millions of them, of newsreel, it will all achieve nothing.
I am honoured that some of my comments are being noticed since my name keeps coming up in replies! Except that many people are not reading them correctly because I am being accused of saying things that I did not! The only comment I made about Mr Stander was to refute Doris’ comment that ‘I did not care about him’, simply because I DID NOT COMMENT on him and his difficult situation. But since you have drawn me into your nonsensical debate I shall tell you what I DO think. I do not know how or when Mr Stander acquired his farm – whether as an inheritance or BOUGHT it either pre or post Independence. Whatever the circumstances, Mr Stander’s farm was NOT stolen. There were NO title-deeds when the original settlers arrived in the late 1800s – the local people just moved around from patch to patch. I do not know when ‘title deeds’ first started but, since then, they have been handed down through families or ‘bought’ from one property-owner to the next, right through to the late 1990s when the farm invasions started. Some even after from what I can gather, although some of those people are STILL facing eviction, black or white! So I do not understand your brainwashed rhetoric but perhaps you should do some homework and come up with some ideas of your own.
True grit there Mr Ben Freeth.
We need some of this resolve to percolate down to the Zimbo.
With some backbone, the people can rid themselves of this ZANU scourge.
Mr Stander’s case is a very sad one demonstrating the evil that men can do to others.