Police block Shamuyarira thugs from evicting farmer Ben Freeth

By Violet Gonda
14 February 2007

The ZANU PF Secretary for information and Publicity Nathan Shamuyarira has been implicated in the attempted takeover of a farm belonging to commercial farmer Ben Freeth without an eviction order. Freeth is a former executive of the Commercial Farmers Union and has the biggest mango producing farm in the country. He said there was a chaotic situation at his farm last Friday when the lands officer for the district arrived with a rented mob to occupy his farm on behalf of the ruling party official. Police blocked the thugs hours later in an unprecedented move.

The police usually stand by while white farmers are being evicted illegally. So it is not clear why they blocked Freeth’s eviction. But it is known that Freeth is the farmer who is challenging the constitutionality of ‘Amendment no.17’ in a landmark case in the Supreme Court. The amendment nationalised farmland and prevents court challenges by evicted farmers.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear his case on March 22 therefore making takeovers without an eviction order illegal. But despite this, Freeth said a delegation led by Shamuyarira’s brother appeared at his farm saying the farm had been allocated to the ZANU PF official.

According to the farmer some of the people that came to invade his farm on behalf of the ruling party spokesman included Shamuyarira’s nephew Peter Chamada, the lands officer for the district Mr. Kunonga, a ZANU PF Central Committee member named as Mr. Jamaya and district war veterans. “And they all wanted to stay in my house. The lands officer said Minister Shamuyarira needs your house and these people have come to stay at your house,” Freeth said.

He said although he asked to see legal papers that gave them the legal authority to invade his farm he got none. The farmer said it was quite a chaotic situation. “At one stage my wife took a picture of them and they said she was breaking the law by taking a picture and would be arrested. And they all came running into the house, running into my bedroom and all around the house.”

The gang allegedly stole a lot of mangos, which are farmed commercially by Freeth. They had arrived at the farm around 1pm and only left at 9 in the evening after the head of lands in the civil division department and Freeth had alerted Chegutu police of the lawless situation.

Ben Freeth’s Mount Carmel Farm is situated outside Chegutu along the Chinhoyi road in Mashonaland West. Besides being the largest mango producer in the country, the farmer also grows other citrus fruits and maize on a large-scale.

He is challenging three main aspects of the draconian ‘Amendment no. 17’ saying the right to protection of the law has been taken away, taking someone’s property without compensation is theft and that the white commercial farmers are being targeted because of their colour.

The commercial farmer said the rented mob that arrived at his doorstep wore t-shirts written ‘land to the people’. “ I said to them, this is not land to the people. This is land for the ministers and this seems to be the way that this whole programme is being run. It’s just a get rich exercise for ministers and others in power to just grab what is not theirs. What they have not paid for and what they have not worked for.”

The defiant farmer added; “I told the men that if they wanted to come and steal what was not theirs then they must come and shoot me. If they want to come and steal, then they should also come and commit murder. As far as those things are concerned, we believe they are against God’s law and even against the constitution of Zimbabwe as well. And if the minister is really serious about stealing then he must come and shoot me.”

We were not able to get a comment from the ZANU PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira.