Army involvement feared in land grab

By Alex Bell
02 February 2010

Yet another South African farming family whose property has been targeted for forced takeover is seeking the help of its own government, with the Zimbabwean army reportedly being enlisted to drive the family off their land.

The Du Toits from Excelsior Farm in the Nyazura district have this week informed the South African Ambassador to Zimbabwe in an urgent email that they will soon be forced off their land by soldiers. Mrs Alida Du Toit sent the message to Mlungisi Makalima this weekend after being visited twice by police officials who warned that the army had been enlisted to ensure their removal from the farm. According to South Africa’s Beeld newspaper, the army’s involvement is the work of Air Commodore Innocent Chiganze who has claimed that he is the new owner of the farm.

The Du Toits have only just returned to the property after being forced to leave amid threats and intimidation by land invaders two weeks ago. According to the Beeld, Mrs Du Toit said the police appeared concerned at the warnings of the army’s involvement, threats she said she had also heard from other sources.
Makalima meanwhile has already been forced to intervene on a number of occasions in recent weeks, because of the ongoing spate of land seizures targeting South African farmers. In the past few days Mike Odendaal, also a South African citizen, was forced to leave his farm, Hillcrest, in the Chipinge district. The Du Doit’s original eviction from their property came in the wake of two other evictions, including that of Manda Farm’s Ray Finaughty, who fled his home with his family on Christmas Eve amid increasing violence by land invaders.

The evictions have come just weeks after South Africa and Zimbabwe signed a bilateral investment protection agreement, meant to offer the farmers some form of protection against invasion. Pressure group AfriForum had originally tried to stop the signing of the document, over fears it would fail those South African farmers whose land had already been expropriated under the land grab campaign. But the South African government made assurances that it would protect its citizens in Zimbabwe, and as a result the investment pact was eventually signed. Both governments have since argued that the document is not yet valid because it hasn’t been ratified in the Zimbabwe Parliament, leaving the South African farmers with no legal protection.
The Zimbabwe government is now set to be sued by Afriforum over the illegal and ongoing seizure of South African owned land. Last month the group won a high court bid to serve papers on Zimbabwe, in an effort to enforce a 2008 regional ruling declaring the Robert Mugabe’s land ‘reform’ exercise as unlawful. The ruling was passed by the human rights court of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which ordered the government to protect white farmers and the rights to their land. But the ruling has been ignored and the High Court last week dismissed it, refusing to register it within Zimbabwe. AfriForum is seeking to have the ruling enforced from within South Africa instead.

The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) has this week renewed its calls for the unity government to intervene to stop the land attacks, which it says is further damaging the already battered agriculture sector. The CFU said in a statement Monday that it lamented the government’s ‘failure to stop ongoing violence against farmers.’ It warned that an impending drought and the ongoing disruptions of productive farming activity would limit the 2010 maize harvest to less than a quarter of the national requirement.

A statement from the CFU stated, “The CFU deplores the government’s failure to stop the ongoing violence against farmers and their workers, and for allowing a handful of thugs to operate with complete impunity.”