More farm workers evicted and jobless

By Tererai Karimakwenda
29 April, 2008

Earlier this week the President of the Commercial Farmers Union Trevor Gifford, was barricaded in his house for several days and experienced serious problems on his farm. Deon Theron, the CFU Vice President, was evicted from his farm on Sunday. These evictions and accompanying violence around the country also badly affect farm workers and their families.

We managed to speak with Deon Theron on Friday and he told us that Gifford was no longer barricaded in, due to help from the police, but all the workers on his farm had been ordered to pack their belongings and leave within the hour. The farm had over 40 families with children who have nowhere else to go. Theron said that the farm owners can at least make a phone call and go somewhere when they are evicted with no notice, but the employees have no other options.

As a CFU official Theron has information about all the incidents on commercial farms around the country. He said there have been attacks on about 165 commercial farms in the past few weeks. The smaller farms employ about 20 families and the larger ones about 100. This means the average sized farm has about 40 families. He estimates that over 6000 families are now displaced and jobless.

The situation at the farm owned by Wayne Munroe in Nyamandlovu outside Bulawayo is reported to have calmed down slightly, although still volatile. 200 ZANU-PF thugs descended on the farm’s compound on Wednesday and brutally assaulted farm workers and their families. They have ended up sleeping rough on the side of the Victoria Falls Road and there are over 100 people there - now - with no blankets, tents, food or anywhere else to go.