JAG says white farmers under intense pressure to leave farms

By Tichaona Sibanda
3 January 2008

The 400 white farmers in the country who are still on their properties are under intense pressure from the government to leave their farms, according to Justice for Agriculture.

JAG, an organisation acting on behalf of around 4,300 white commercial farmers dispossessed by the government’s fast-track land reform programme, says although there was a lull in forced evictions over the festive season, they expect the situation to ‘get hot’ soon.

John Worsley Worswick, chief executive officer of JAG, said traditionally it’s quiet over the Christmas and New Year holidays but things start to happen again as soon as the festive season is over.

Worswick’s statement comes amid reports that a white farmer based in KweKwe in the Midlands province has been given two days’ notice to
vacate his farm.

Michael Berry Jansen owns Xanphippe Farm but has been ordered by a serving Zimbabwe National Army soldier, Obert Mabhena, to move off his property or be dragged to court for resisting the eviction order.

JAG said they had hoped that a SADC tribunal interim relief order issued against the government would have extended protection to all farmers.
It allowed a white farmer to remain on his farm until the Supreme Court rules on his appeal case.

The interim relief order, granted in Windhoek, Namibia late last year, protects farmer William Michael Campbell and his family and all his employees from the regime’s continued onslaught of invasions and intimidation.

Worswick explained that Campbell sought the relief in his own right and as such it was extended just for him. But he said normally in a country that abides by the rule of law the government would respect that order across the board.

‘All farmers should in fact be protected under this interim ruling, because it orders the government not to take any steps, or permit any steps to be taken, directly or indirectly, whether by its agents or by orders, to evict Campbell from his farm in Chegutu. This exposes government’s lack of respect for property rights,’ Worswick said.
Meanwhile floods continue to wreak havoc in most parts of the country as heavy rains continue to fall. The rains have reportedly marooned villagers and drowned livestock and wildlife in the Middle Sabi and in Chipinge.

The commanding officer of police in Manicaland, Assistant Commissioner Obert Benge, told the Herald on Wednesday that rescue teams comprising security forces and members of the Civil Protection Unit had been deployed to the affected areas.

Benge said heavy rains upstream in the Middle Sabi resulted in Save River bursting its banks in low-lying areas of Chipinge. The weekend floods also saw the Dakate River that runs into Save River, bursting its banks, flooding nearby homesteads in Masimbe Village.

‘People fled homes and sought refuge on higher ground. The same situation is at the Tongogara Refugee Camp where the floods have marooned inmates. No casualties have been reported so far but the biggest problem is that most of the marooned villagers are failing to access food,’ Benge said.