100 farms invaded in 4 days
By Tererai Karimakwenda
08 April, 2008

Illegal farm invasions have escalated dramatically in the past few days as the government continues to delay announcing the results of the presidential elections. The Commercial Farmers Union say there were about 500 white owned farms left before the current campaign, but now about 100 have been taken over in the last 4 days alone. CFU president Trevor Gifford said the evictions are gaining momentum and black farm workers are also being victimised. The areas most affected have been Masvingo and Mashonaland Central, the heart of Zimbabwe’s agriculture. The invasions began Saturday in Masvingo, where 5 farmers either fled or were trapped inside their homes by mobs.

As for the farm workers, Gifford said they are being terrorised by being rounded up, abused verbally and physically and forced to chant ZANU-PF slogans. The ruling party blames the farm workers for Mugabe’s electoral loss in the rural areas that used to be his stronghold. But Gifford says many of them are not even allowed to vote. The government denied them citizenship because they have at least one grandparent from either Zambia or Malawi.

Meanwhile it has been revealed that the Masvingo farm invasion reported by the state controlled media after the elections, was stage managed by the government with the help of Zimbabwe Broadcasting (ZBC). Gifford said they have information that shows that the Masvingo bureau chief at ZBC, Lilian Muungani, paid the so-called invaders. The incident was portrayed as a spontaneous uprising, yet the television crew just happened to be there with cameras ready to film.

Saturday’s state newspaper The Herald also claimed that the Malilangwe Reserve in the Gonarezhou area was harbouring foreign journalists and former commercial white farmers in a lodge on the property. The paper suggested that the farmers were gathering, ahead of an MDC victory, with a view to returning to their farms. Officials from Malilangwe said this was “totally untrue and unfounded”.

The people at the lodge were actually architects, sub-contractors and marketing agents who were flown into Buffalo Range and Malilangwe last week. The lodge made available to the authorities all the associated paper work to prove this.

Gifford said the government once again is trying to create racial tension and much of the language has to do with getting rid of all white farmers.

Justice for Agriculture which represents evicted white farmers, released a statement which said in part: “The deadlock in the country's political process following last week’s general election and the slow announcement of results has left the government looking once again for scapegoats to blame for the outcome. It is little surprise that further farm invasions have been orchestrated in response to falsified reports that white farmers are to blame for threatening those currently occupying land with eviction in the event of an opposition victory.”