ZANU PF's women's league leader, Oppah Muchinguri, tried to block Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Didymus Mutasa from violently taking over one of the most productive farms in Manicaland in what is seen as widening divisions in the party over the continuing land invasions.
Mutasa allegedly threatened Rusape tobacco farmer Gavin Woest with death if he tried to resist the takeover of his Masasa Farm by Agatha Mugomba on January 2, according to the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU).
The CFU yesterday said Woest who has been at the farm for the past 50 years had initially tried to resist eviction and wrote a letter to the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) seeking protection.
But after continued threats by Mutasa and Zanu PF militia camped at the farm, the farmer and his family eventually left, abandoning his farm equipment and unharvested tobacco crop.
The CFU said Woest was first tipped off about the impending takeover on Christmas Eve while helping another farmer Ray Finaughty of nearby Manda Farm to pack up his belongings after he was given three hours to vacate his farm.
On December 29 three youths arrived at the farm and informed them they were taking over the property. The youths then ordered all workers to stop work.
The following day a Jomic team that included Muchinguri arrived at the farm and tried to intervene.
"During the talks, Ms Oppah Muchinguri was harassed by the three youths," the CFU said.
"A silver Toyota Prado approached the scene. Mr Didymus Mutasa got out of the vehicle and greeted everyone present.
"Talks between him, the Jomic delegation and us continued for a while.
"The talks became heated, at which stage Mr Mutasa proceeded towards his vehicle to leave," reads the letter written to CFU by Woest.
"Ms Muchinguri had a long discussion with Mr Mutasa after which he left.
"The delegation voiced their disappointment towards Mr Mutasa's way of addressing the situation. They returned to Harare shortly after that. The youths remained on the farm."
Yesterday Muchinguri confirmed visiting the farm but said she did not clash with Mutasa who is also Zanu PF secretary for administration.
But she spoke against the ongoing takeover of productive farms by Zanu PF militants across the country.
"As Jomic it is our role to investigate cases such as these and our role is to ensure that economic activities at farms are not disrupted," she said.
"I went to the farm under Jomic to see how best the situation could be resolved because we were informed there was a lot of activity on the farm.
"So as Jomic we do not support any disruptions that cause economic instability."
She said she called Mutasa to the farm to discuss the situation which was getting out of hand.
Muchinguri has been at loggerheads with the Zanu PF leadership in the province following her audacious bid to topple Vice-President Joice Mujuru ahead of the party's congress last month.
The women's league boss embarrassed Mujuru in polls in Masvingo but failed to garner the same support in nine other provinces.
Mutasa was not available for comment yesterday.
Meanwhile, CFU president Deon Theron said white commercial farmers had grown weary of the unending farm disruptions despite the new political dispensation.
He said the invasions were also militating against Zimbabwe's efforts to attract foreign investors.
"The disrespect of property rights, court rulings and signed Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements and the selective application of the rule of law also contribute to the unwillingness by investors to get involved in Zimbabwe, thereby hindering the recovery process," he said.
"As much as 80% of former prime land now lies uncultivated and thousands of farms are derelict.
"Up to 60 000 workers and their families have been displaced, many of whom were assaulted or tortured by militants."

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No evil excuses or ridiculous rationale should be accepted to prevent indigenous people repatriating THEIR lands, wealth & resources!
In order to make omelet, the egg has to break!
If so-called 'economic disruption' is the price to be paid for Africans repatriating their indigenous space, then so be it! In the end, Africans WILL AGAIN create THEIR OWN economic stability, instead of being renters on their own African land and servants in their own indigenous African space!
Did the racist and criminal invaders concern themselves about the 'disruption' of African lives when they criminally imposed themselves on Africans UNPROVOKED? NO!
The Engliush shall have their ancestral lands in England. They may even invade farms owned by the Shona and Ndebele in UK. The people of Nehanda do not begrudge them as much.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100109/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_immigrant_riot
The offspring of Nehanda shall shall reclaim their ancestral lands in Zimbabwe.
The offspring of Shaka shall reclaim their ancestral lands in Azania.
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"Already the biggest auto market and steel maker, China edged past Germany in 2009 to become the top exporter, yet another sign of its rapid rise and the spread of economic power from West to East."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100110/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_trade ..
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Go East, My Son
We are sorry that our ancestors were intelligent, advanced and daring enough to explore the wild oceans to discover new countries and to concur and develop these.
We are sorry that those who came before us took you out of the bush and taught you that there was more to life than beating drums and chasing animals with sticks and stones.
We are sorry that they planned, funded and developed roads, towns, mines, factories, airports, all of which you now claim to be your long deprived inheritance so you have full right to change and rename these at your discretion.
We are sorry that our parents taught us the value of small but strong families, to not breed like rabbits and end up as underfed, illiterate shack dwellers living in poverty.
We are sorry that when they provided you with schools, you decided they looked better without windows or in piles of ashes. We happily gave up those bad days of getting spanked in our all white schools for doing something wrong, and much prefer these days of freedom where problems can be resolved with knives and guns.
We are sorry that it is hard to shake off the bitterness of the past when you keep on raping, torturing and killing our friends and family members, and then hide behind the fence of "human rights" with smiles on your faces.
We are sorry that we do not trust the government. We have no reason to be so suspicious and short sighted seeing that there has never been a case where any of these poor hard working intellectuals were involved in any form of corruption or irregularities.
We are sorry that we do not trust the police force and although they have openly admitted that they have lost the war against crime and criminals, we should not be so negative and just keep on hoping for the best.
We are sorry that we basically flung open our border posts, and now left you competing for jobs against illegal immigrants from our beautiful neighboring countries. All these countries that have grown so strong after kicking out the "settlers", you should follow their excellent example and grow big and strong like them!
We are sorry that we don't believe in witchcraft, beetroot and garlic, urinating on street corners or trading woman for cattle, maybe we just grew up differently. So sorry that when we are forced into sharing the same establishments, sometimes we loose our temper, that is totally uncalled for.
We are sorry that your medical care, water supplies, roads, and your electrical supplies are going down the toilet because skilled people who could have planned and resolved these issues had to be shown away because they were of the wrong ethnic background and now have to work in foreign countries where their skills are more needed.
We are so sorry and should really try harder to be more tolerant and learn to get along with EVERYBODY around us, one big happy family.
Chokora, u stupid stupid Muntu!
Dagrossing, every sensible European is crying over the depth of shit your so called glorious ancestors have put you, you,re in for a tough ride after the actions of your criminal ancestors. If in your imaginations, the coming of your criminal ancestors heralded civilization in Africa, we refuse to acknowledge your false distortions "lies", go read about your history and the history of the world. Your coming to Africa is the worst thing to happen to our dear continent,we are retaking all stolen properties back e.g, land,resources, heritage, ideology e.t.c. We have as well moved on to seeing history more from our own perspectives and not from the heavily distorted piece"mountains of lies" we got from you and your ilk.We have elected to reject totally, views not emanating from the core African belief and logic systems, as doing this has/will free us from the evil and malicious grip of the invaders and all they stand for,remember a journey of a thousand miles begins with a step.We will take back our properties ,some still in your criminal museums and others forcefully acquired here in Africa.Go somewhere and feel pity for the actions of your ancestors, they put you in the biggest shit your,re too dumb to realise at the moment,go seek for forgiveness before coming on here to display your stupidity. Africans, not minding how low we,ve become, are still a great race of people and have contributed immensely to the progress of this world, than the ungrateful invaders who,ve destroyed more than they,ve built. This is a new day, prepare to meet your Karma if you don,t repent and apologise.Even at that, pray we accept your apologies, for, we know those same apologies can be lies in disguise,don,t you see where you have been landed?
Brilliant post!
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