Chengetai Zvauya
3 October 2001
Harare — WAR veterans and Zanu PF supporters are selling property and goods they looted at farms in Mashonaland West during last month's wave of violence in the province.
When The Standard visited Two Trees Farm, Long Valley farm, Highbury Estate, Scorner Farm and Costworld Estate in the Lions Den and Doma areas last week, scores of people could be seen selling goods ranging from farming tools to tractors.
The farms are among the several affected by the rampant looting which took place last month. At Highbury Estate, war veterans led by persons who identified themselves as Tsuro and Chris Mugwagwa were seen trading game meat among other goods, mostly electrical appliances and clothes. Fertiliser was being sold at $26 000 per tonne, while several farm implements and tractor parts were also on sale.
The situation at the farms was tense with scores of Zanu PF youths searching every visitor demanding to know their business in the area.
Several farm houses remained empty after they were deserted by commercial farms who were driven off the properties by Zanu PF supporters in the guise of land reform.
At the Two Trees Farm in Doma, farm invaders were selling electricity generators and water pumps to buyers who had come from as far as Chinhoyi town.
At Costwold Estate, owned by Alan York, invaders were seen allocating pieces of land to each other, led by a war veteran identified as Musavengana.
Last month war veterans launched a terror attack on farms in Chinhoyi and Doma, destroying property worth $167 million and forcing 60 farms to be evacuated.
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