By Violet Gonda
13 July, 2005

Sarah Chapman, a farmer's wife is appearing in a Chinhoyi court Thursday after she was charged under the PTC act for allegedly sending text messages to Mashonaland West Governor Nelson Samkange calling him a thief.

Bruce and Sarah Chapman were illegally evicted from their Rukoba Farm in August last year by the governor. The family said he had no valid section 5 or 8 for the property and they were never shown the offer letter in spite of asking the Governor on numerous occasions.

Mrs Chapman told us that she is terrified that the governor who is also the resident minister can use his political power to lock her up. She could face 6 months in jail if found guilty. Sarah Chapman says she indeed sent him text messages telling him he was a thief quoting directly from the bible and says she has documents to prove that he is a thief.

The family was given 24 hours to pack up and told not to take anything. Narrating her ordeal in a statement Sarah Chapman said, "On the 25 August he (Governor) called Bruce to his office and told him to get off the farm, Bruce asked him how long we had to get off and Samkange replied "yesterday". He also said that if we didn't go quietly he would have Bruce beaten, even killed. Youth were quickly deployed to the farm, as well as policemen, at least two with guns, and a person from the President's office. We packed up in a day and a half but were not allowed to take anything away until the house had been inspected. Mrs. Samkange arrived to do the inspection and toured the house with her entourage. She was very angry after the tour and demanded that all the furniture be offloaded and put back in the house, saying we could not take it to London. It was made from Zimbabwean trees she said. After a lot of negotiation we were allowed to leave with the furniture but had to leave all garden equipment, some office furniture and a computer."

Soon after the illegal eviction, the Chapmans obtained a court order to reclaim their farm equipment. But when Bruce Chapman phoned the Governor to inform him that he would be coming to get the equipment, the Governor allegedly said, "…we do not live in London so we do not need to listen to the courts."

Their tobacco was sectioned to a Wilson Nyabonda (of ZITAC) although the seedbeds had been prepared by the original farmer. Nyabonda and the Governor ended up fighting over the ownership of the crop.
Mrs. Chapman said the once lucrative farm is now a shadow of its former self. A rose section at the farm has collapsed, many greenhouses have no plastic left on them and there has been no disease control. She said during their last 12 months at the farm that 6 hectare project sold 9 million stems.

A distraught Mrs Chapman began to send the Governor text messages on his cell phone in order to try to make him realise that what he was doing was wrong. She often quoted directly from the Bible. She said she pointed out that he had broken the Lord's commandments and that he must face the consequences of his actions. But that resulted in Chinhoyi CID arriving at her home and saying she was being charged under the PTC act for sending messages of a grossly offensive or threatening nature.

Mrs Chapman is appearing in court Thursday. She says she never threatened the Governor in any way but called him a racist, a liar and a thief. She told him that in order to be forgiven by God he should give up the farm. Although the police have now dropped the charges on the religious texts she still could face six months in jail for calling the governor a thief.