SW Radio Africa (London)
Alex Bell
8 April 2009
Seven more people have joined the growing list of Zimbabwean commercial farmers facing prosecution for being on their land, as part of the ongoing offensive against farmers that has violently intensified in the last week.
The growing list of farmers facing prosecution has now reached 100 and includes the wife of Chiredzi farmer, Gary Warth, who has been in hiding for more than six weeks. His wife Teresa was arrested on Monday in a move that Chiredzi police blatantly admitted was to 'bait' her husband out of hiding to face arrest and prosecution. She was later released and is expected in court this week. Five other Chiredzi farmers have also been arrested since late last month and will appear in court next week, on false charges of occupying state land illegally.
Meanwhile the violent offensive in Chegutu has not yet eased, with Mount Carmel farm manager Martin Joubert, also being hauled behind bars this week. Joubert joins seven other Mount Carmel farm workers who were arrested over the weekend while trying to defend the land from a gang of lawless thugs. The land invaders had originally arrived on the farm last Friday and demanded that the owners vacate the land. The onslaught turned violent on Saturday night when the invaders returned, after being forcibly removed from the land by the farm's staff and other farm workers in the area. In retaliation, the invaders launched a vicious attack on the farm staff that night, leaving one worker with a fractured skull.
Chegutu police arrived shortly after the attack, but instead of taking action against the violent land invaders, arrested seven staff members on trumped up 'kidnapping' charges. These workers have all been tortured behind bars and on Wednesday were remanded in custody until a later date. The rest of Mount Carmel's staff meanwhile is in hiding, as the thugs have almost completely taken over the land. Farmer Ben Freeth, who owns the farm with his father-in-law Mike Campbell, has told SW Radio Africa that he is unable to move freely around the farm and Campbell and his wife Angela have left the farm as a safety precaution. Freeth continues the fight to have the invaders removed from his land.
There is no question that the farm attacks, which have been ongoing since February, are the biggest obstacle standing in the way of crucial foreign investment in the country. Despite this, the unity government has done nothing to prevent the attacks that have, instead, been condoned by Robert Mugabe. Prime Minister Morgan Tvsangirai has warned that the perpetrators of the attacks will be arrested and last week tasked the Joint Operations and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) to deal with the land issue. JOMIC in turn has since argued that farmland under legal protections such as Bilateral Investment Protection Agreements (BIPAs), are not 'immune' to fresh invasions, effectively condoning the new attacks.
The attacks have also continued despite last year's SADC Tribunal ruling that tasked Zimbabwe's government with protecting land owners from future attacks. The ruling has been blatantly ignored under direct instruction by Zimbabwe's Attorney General, and in one case the ruling was effectively nullified by a High Court judge. This disregard of the ruling has been enforced despite Zimbabwe being a SADC signatory and therefore bound by SADC treaty law.
SADC itself meanwhile has remained completely silent on the farm attacks, which not only violate Zimbabwe's political agreement, but also violate the Tribunal ruling that Zimbabwe's government is bound to respect.
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Oh well if Bob doesn't want the farmers, there's plenty other land in Africa which other governments will glady give to them. Zim is starving and other countries, lets see, South Africa, namibia, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Nigeria all have their arms open to the white commercial farmer of Zimbabwe to help feed their people. It really is a major pity that this has happened, Zimbabwe would of been the leader of Africa, just slightly behind SA, by now. Well done Bob.
The issue of white farmers will continue to be there. Citing legal law has always been problematic and ineffective, when the vast majority of Zimbabweans say whites "took their land" and vice versa white farmers feel wronged. Land reform under Mugabe has been one of the most popular program in Zimbabwe. Surprisingly, even the most "oppressed" Zimbabweans believe it has some benefits. So, how do white minority farmers respond to a hugely popular program...by using the law, which many in Zimbabwe accuse view as just white colonial plot. Or do the farmers simply call "Alex Bell" at SW Radio 10,000 miles..in the hope that SADC will listen to this lowly white man in England! How do you deal with powerful people in Zimbabwe who "own" these farms...Will white farmers resort to fist fighting like Bennett did in parliament against Chinamasa? Do white farmers actually realize that they do not have political capital in Zimbabwe? Supporting the GNU and it's success may help the farmers...But does their hatred of Mugabe gets in the way forward!
It is sad that so many Zimbabweans have swallowed Mugabes bleating about sanctions and farms. I am a supporter of land being handed back through a legal process to the ordinary people but where has that happened in Zimbabwe - the land is handed to Mugabe's cronies and in most cases has become quickly unproductive - how does that help the ordinary people let alone those Zimbabweans that worked and lived on the farms and have now been ran off by the PF thugs. As to sanctions - is freezing bank accounts full of money ripped off the people of Zimbabwe for many years a bad thing - or not letting Mugabe's cronies travel at will on their shopping trips? What are the real sanctions that effect the lives of the ordinary people - I dont know of any???
Keep telling the white man to send you dollars while you rip them out of their hard won harvests; next year when you fill your sazda bowl with roots and berries, remember how tasty those nasty whiteman's crops were. A government set up to steal the last bit of the economy that is successful has no plan for any funds given to them. The Zapu's cant point to any domestic success that they havent stolen from someone. To give them money would only prolong their sense of worth which no one else in the world community believes for a minute. Get ready for a long winter.
Since there are no 'white' men, talk of seeking funds from them is a ghostly thought.
We talk of INVADERS; you prefer to rumble in the sea of equivocation, at best, and nonsense, at worst---black, white, brown, light skinned, dark skinned and similar trashy, uninformed and silly categorial formations.
Now, even if arguendo, there were 'white men' (your sexism is noted without regret), no reasonable person would contend that the IMF, the World Bank or the UN are 'white' organizations.
None, except you, which makes you supremely unreasonable.
These are structures of INVADER capitalism, and we have never contended that INVADERS do not have tails, African tails, or expressed in your obscurantist lexicon, 'black' or 'mixed race' tails.
We don't care about 'color': the tool, the human body, is not defined by its color---it is not a LIVING HUMAN BODY because of its alleged 'color'.
On the contrary, its effectiveness in the world---its strength, health, nimbleness, and beauty---has nada to do with 'color.'
In brief, dude, our minds and tongues and fingers are not hogtied to INVADER lexicography.
We have the freedom TO nullify THE LEXICON of the INVADERS at every level of human interaction, and the ENERGIA to theoretically and practically assert our freedom FROM its cognitive and practical aporia.
No one cares what you think or say JellyBoobs. So best you keep your warped mind to yourself dont you think? Must be awefully lonely up there.
At least whilst jabba's writhing his way through dictionaries he's not out there beating up and abusing old people and children.Actually I'm working in artificial intelligence and wondering if Jabba could send us a blueprint of his brain. We are building an idiot .
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Keep on crying in the wilderness and maybe your not too holy friends may hear you. Tell it to the world that white criminals where forewarned to vacate the farms at specific dates in a very lawful manner to facilitate the true inhabitants to take over the land which consumed so much blood from 1896 to 1979.Tell it to the world that we have got white farmers like Beattie in Chegutu who are properly doing their operations without hinderance and help the people by being part of a national commitees to oversee the peoples aspirations. Tell it to the world we have white farmers who use child labour but your friends have the audacity to ban cocoa from African producing nations. You know what I mean ah? Alex how did you do your farming operations in Rhodesia. I worked for a Mr Danni for $1.76 for a week planting, weeding his fields from 6am to 6pm in 1978. Was it worth it. Did he worry about my human rights? Oh s**t I remember now I didn't have any. Where were they? But its okay now I toil in that same piece of land for nothing a day but I make sure I use it to feed my tummy.