Harare - Zimbabwe's remaining white farmers say continued
farm invasions as well as human and property rights abuses by
officials from President Robert Mugabe's party are keeping
international investors away from the poverty-stricken country.
Zimbabwe had 4,500 white commercial farmers and agriculture was
the cornerstone of the economy before the government's controversial
land seizures began 10 years ago.
According to the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), 152 of the 300
commercial farms still in operation are now being targeted for
eviction.
The situation has worsened since last month when Mugabe told his
Zanu-PF party that whites were not Zimbabweans.
'The New Year has presented nothing but more troubles for
farmers and it is a serious situation. Farmers would have preferred
to be in the fields. But they are constantly being harassed, CFU
president Deon Theron said Saturday.
'The police still fail to act on court orders protecting farmers,
while the law is being abused to dispossess people of their property
on the basis of race,' he told the German Press Agency dpa.
Theron said it was increasingly difficult for members of the CFU
who face state-sponsored violent and extra-judicial evictions.
'On one hand they use militia and violence to drive us out and on
the other they use the police and the courts. We are in a no win
situation and the situation has not changed,' he said.
Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai formed a coalition
government last February following a disputed and violent
presidential run-off which Tsvangirai said claimed more than 200
lives of his supporters.
The coalition has been marred by disagreements between Mugabe and
Tsvangirai, dampening prospects of attracting investors or reviving a
near-collapsed economy.
'The transitional government has only been on paper for us. There
has been no help forthcoming at all,' according to Theron.
'This is happening at a time when we need investors to revive the
economy. But investors now doubt to risk their investment in a
country that has no respect for property rights,' he said.
Farmers who are foreigners have been systematically targeted, the
latest being two South Africans, he said.
'We thought the formation of the coalition government was the
beginning of democracy in terms of respect of property rights and
rule of law, but the opposite is what is happening. This is
counterproductive in a country that was beginning to show positive
move in its economy and has a negative impact in the re-engagement
with the international community, 'said Theron.
'No investor wants to put their money in a country that has
no respect to property rights. What is really disturbing is that
there is no prosecution to such people who are violating the law.'
The CFU claims senior Zanu-PF officials led by former Land Reform
and State Security minister Didymus Mutasa threatened white
commercial farmer Gavin Woest, with death last week, telling him he
had minutes to vacant his property. Mutasa's wife was reportedly
involved in the seizure.
Responding to the claim Saturday, Mutasa told dpa: 'These white
people create stories. I have not gone to America or Britain to look
for land. I get my land in Zimbabwe which is my country. What is
wrong with that?'
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party recently
released a report on the continued harassment of white farmers in
Zimbabwe despite the formation of the coalition government.
The report says 1,400 cases of harassment of white farmers were
recorded and names the senior Zanu-PF officials who have been driving
the farm invasions.
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