The Vice President of the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) Charles Taffs has said the ongoing court case involving ZANU PF activist Temba Mliswa exposes the looting of white owned commercial farms under the guise of a land reform exercise.
Mliswa appeared in court last Wednesday charged with swindling a former commercial farmer of cattle and equipment worth over US$24 million.
"It's highlighted an issue which we have been pushing for 10 years and that is the looting on the farms hiding behind the land reform. What we have witnessed over the last ten years is that beneficiaries have come onto farms and asset stripped them, leaving farms with absolutely nothing," Taffs told Newsreel.
The Mliswa case has opened a can of worms with suggestions that police commissioner Augustine Chihuri is trying to teach him a lesson.
Mliswa, George Marere and Martin Mutasa, the son of Presidential Affairs Minister Didymus Mutasa, were arrested after trying to fraudulently acquire a US$1 million share holding in a company owned by a white businessman.
Unfortunately for Mliswa and his colleagues the police chief is said to have a vested interest in the company they took over. Over 40 new cases are now reportedly being prepared against Mliswa.
In one of the cases Mliswa misrepresented to farmer Petros Jacobus van der Merwe that he could help him sell his equipment without state interference for a 10 percent commission. Mliswa then sold the property but did not surrender any money to Van der Merwe.
Mliswa is reported to have taken 108 cattle, 3 heavy vehicles, a coldroom, 3 tractors, a drowsy hammer, irrigation equipment, generators and other items all valued at US$3 million.
Mliswa proceeded to target Graham George Davis van Rensburg of Kwekwe whose farm had been acquired for resettlement. Mliswa claimed he could protect his equipment from being seized by the new owner and induced the farmer to lie that he had an agreement with him for the sale of the equipment and it could not be sold. It's then reported that Mliswa took 3 000 cattle worth US$900 000 and farm equipment including bulldozers, tractors, lorries, graders and pick-up trucks all valued at US$20 million.
Taffs told us the CFU welcomes the prosecution of Mliswa and "will look with interest how this (case) proceeds."
He said they had thousands of police reports (IRB numbers) over the past ten years where people have been stealing farm equipment. He told us some farmers who ran big operations left with just suitcases from their farms after everything was simply taken away from them.
Comments 1 to 5 of 5 Post a comment
" ..white owned .. farms .."
In UK? Maybe not.
ZIM, dear native, do you have a clue about what the rhodie idiots at Tsvangirai's Supremacist White's Radio mean by that?
Look around you: Do you see any white farms? I see the ancestral lands of our ancestors, the ZIM patriots, who were invaded, denigrated, raped, tortured, murdered and mutilated by the white man.
To start with, we suspect that in UK there are "black owned farms". Right?
Are there "white(brit) owned farms" in Germany? France?
Surely the Roman rulers of the islands of UK must still have expansive "roman owned farms" right? Surely there must be "Nazi owned farms" and businesses in France? In Poland? NO?
" ..white owned .. farms .."? Of course the rhodie clowns would rather not remind us about the vile brits by suggesting "brit commandeered farms".
" ..white owned .. farms .."? And they would rather paint all europeans with the color of the original brit sin.
At every turn we shall remind those brits, those whites -- LOUDLY!! vuvuzela-loud! == that brits and the "whites" own NOTHING in the lands of our ancestors, the patriotic natives of maZimbabwe.
Mother Africa, whose bosom the foreigners have defiled and plundered - and whose offspring they have denied, victimized, denigrated and wantonly slaughtered for centuries - owes them nothing.
Chokora You are a racist. People don't listen to racists.Full stop.
Last I checked when settlers came to Zimbabwe there were no generators on the land, no tractors, no irrigation equipment, no power lines, no dams, NOTHING. So for you to try and defend these thieves in Zanu PF is rich. You are brainless... All racists are. And for your information - the UK is the most tolerant and welcoming place for ethnic minorities. They actually have rights here - unlike in Zimbabwe.
well well, tis good to know that the law is taking its course and that those who are wrong are brought to book, white or not all these racist remarks will not change things. True there were no machines and all but there surely was land and a lot of animals. all these were wantonly looted and it didnot stop those who did. it maybe moral that one should not take an eye for an eye but sometime thats how life goes and we just have to figure out ways of moving on with new models
We supposedly stole your land. Yet, we became citizens of this country and made the land prosper and fed the rest of African. You stole the land from us and look at what youve done with it. The land has turned to ruins and Zimbabwe cannot feed itself.
Talk about total empowerment!
Chokora, and those "Brits" are a home to thousands of your people , Zimbabweans. Your Zimbabweans have LEFT your ruined and totally Mugabe-stripped and crapped all over country because they know that those "Brits" will give them a roof over their heads with most of them never having had it so good in their lives. Most had been living on msasa leaf relish and sadza for months as there was no food anywhere and had a taste of meat for the first time in Britain after a long long time of going without in Zimbabwe. When Mugabe opened his grubby hands to accept the money that PURCHASED those farms by white farmers - YES it became THEIRS. If Mugabe did not want white farmers then he should NEVER have sold them those farms so if you want the land then Mugabe must give those farmers their money back plus all improvements made by the farmers including all their personal belongings including their farming implements and be compensated for all crops not harvested. Only then is it yours otherwise you are thieves with a license to steal just because you can get away with it as blacks. The world is watching.