Sandra Mandizvidza
10 November 2009
HESTER Theron, the elderly mother of the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) president, Deon Theron, was on Friday given a wholly suspended three-month jail term for refusing to vacate her farm.
Harare magistrate Archie Wochiunga told the tearful 79-year-old grandmother that she had 30 days to vacate her dairy farm, on which she has lived since 1957.
Her lawyers Scanlen & Holderness, represented by Godfrey Mamvura, who have tried to save Theron's Friedanthel Farm in Beatrice, also brought the court's attention to the plight of 17 workers who stand to lose their livelihood should the eviction go ahead.
Theron's lawyers said the state had made no plans to compensate the elderly widow in the event that she agreed to hand over her farm.
"Prosecution is pursued along racial lines as it is primarily targeted against white farmers. She is a victim of state-organised racism," said Theron's lawyers in their four-page submission.
Magistrate Wochiunga was unmoved and threatened to put the distressed elderly Theron behind bars if she insisted on staying on the farm. Mamvura said he was appealing against Theron's conviction and sentence.
Her son, CFU president, Deon Theron, who was present in court when sentence was passed, said afterwards all was lost.
Deon said his mother would have to slaughter all her cows numbering about 400 before she vacates the farm. "Although we are going to appeal, my mother would have to get out of Friedanthel Farm.
"What is happening in the land issue is for the benefit of individuals, not the nation," said Deon whose farm was also invaded last year.
"We have tried many times to talk to the Minister of Lands and Land Resettlement, Herbert Murerwa, but we never got the chance."
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