Masvingo police ordered to return stolen farm equipment

By Tererai Karimakwenda
14 December 2005

On Tuesday, white commercial farmers in Masvingo won a court battle in which they were fighting the illegal seizure of equipment from their properties. According to the Commercial Farmers Union, 7 of its members had successfully petitioned the courts to force the Masvingo Farm Equipment and Materials Committee to return all equipment taken illegally. The group, led by Assistant commissioner Mrs. Ndanga and consisting of police, war vets and CIO agents, has been taking equipment illegally from farmers in the Lowveld area.

Our contact in Chiredzi, farmer and manager Gerry Whitehead, was one of the victims. He lost equipment that belongs to Whitro Engineering, which has nothing to do with his farming operation, and does not fall under the farm equipment category. Whitehead estimated its value at about 5 billion Zimbabwe dollars.

We have reports that some of the stolen equipment had already been auctioned, and it is not clear what will happen in those cases. It also remains to be seen whether the police will comply with the court order or ignore it, as they ignored an earlier order to stop taking the equipment in the first place.

With pressure growing on the farming community to produce, the police may find it difficult to escape this time. Again, it all depends on whether Robert Mugabe takes Gideon Gono’s advice and finally take steps to save agriculture in Zimbabwe. Enforcing the court order would be an appropriate first step, followed by the prosecution of anyone who interrupts farming activities.