About 200 white farmers face eviction after they were served with notices, some dating as far back as two years ago.

April 7th, 2009

 

Harare (Zimbabwe) - The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) has asked Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to order a moratorium on prosecution of its members by the state while a solution was sought to a fresh wave of farm invasions.

“It is essential that a moratorium be called on the prosecution of white farmers and immediate cessation of the violence in the productive farming sector,” the CFU said in an “interim” report sent to Tsvangirai last week.

About 200 white farmers face eviction after they were served with notices, some dating as far back as two years ago.

Police said last week they were proceeding with arrest of white farmers defying court orders to vacate farms seized by the government under its controversial land reform programme.

However, it emerged last week the farmers were imploring Prime Minister Tsvangirai to immediately call for a moratorium on the prosecution of white farmers and an immediate cessation of violence on the farming sector in the wake of the new political dispensation.

“Farmers in our sector have been under serious threats and violence since 2000 and the remaining farmers have retained only small portions of their farms and have been very innovative and accommodating in order to continue farming,” reads part of the CFU report dated 27 March, 2009.

The report adds: “The latest threats, violence, prosecutions and evictions have seriously destabilised the industry once again.

“In the end, it is the country, which will once again suffer by having to import the majority of its bulky strategic foods. Should there be any farmers left on the land, it will be very difficult for them or their banks to have the confidence for any sincere and substantial investment to be considered again in agriculture in the coming seasons.”

The Prime Minister’s Office last week ordered the Joint Monitoring and Implementing Committee (JOMIC) – that oversees the implementation of the September 15 power-sharing agreement that gave birth to the unity government between Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe – to investigate the authenticity of the alleged invasions and violence in the farming sector.

The dossier of the CFU, which was last week circulated to government officials, chronicles the alleged invasions or farm disruptions from February 2009 and lists 189 farmers who face eviction from their properties.

Gorden Moyo, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, said Tsvangirai’s priority was to address the issue of farm disruptions.

“It has been his priority. The Prime Minister has been meeting stakeholders in the sector with a view of making sure there are no disruptions. He wants to make sure that the country moves forward,” said Moyo.

Moyo said Tsvangirai would use the ministerial retreat scheduled for Victoria Falls tomorrow to get to the bottom of the issue.

Lands and Resettlement Minister, Herbert Murerwa, told state media at the weekend there were no farm invasions.

But Moyo said the Prime Minister awaited a report from JOMIC to compare with dossiers that he has received from affected farmers and other stakeholders in the farming sector.

Mugabe’s land reforms that he says were necessary to correct a colonial land ownership system that reserved the best land for whites and banished blacks to poor soils, are blamed for plunging Zimbabwe into food shortages after Harare failed to support black villagers resettled on former white farms with inputs to maintain production.

Critics say Mugabe’s cronies – and not ordinary peasants – benefited the most from farm seizures with some of them ending up with as many as six farms each against the government’s stated one-man-one-farm policy.

 

source.The Zimbabwean (Zimbabwe)