Stolen farm equipment auctioned as Masvingo police defy court order

By Tererai Karimakwenda
16 December 2005

The Masvingo Farm Equipment and Materials Committee was ordered to return all equipment taken illegally from commercial farms in the Lowveld, and 3 days later, no farmers have reported compliance. An official with The Commercial Farmers Union told us Friday that much of the stolen equipment had been auctioned by the police. CFU president Trevor Gifford said some equipment had been seen at the police station in Masvingo, but the farmers have not been allowed onto the site to determine if any of it was theirs. A ZANU-PF Central Committee report produced at the Annual Congress last weekend reveals that the government is planning on legalising these equipment seizures.

Gifford said the police legal department was in touch with Mrs Ndanga, the Masvingo assistant police commissioner who has led the Committee’s raids on commercial farms. The group was supposed to be taking inventory, but they stole billions of dollars worth of farming equipment and auctioned it off illegally. Last Friday was the deadline set by the courts for returning the stolen goods, and that was changed to midday this Friday after no progress had been reported. But as of late Friday afternoon, no farmers had reported good news.

Gifford said the 7 included in the court order were just a few as many more farmers had lost property. He said there is a total disrespect for law and order on the farms and forced evictions have escalated. The Commercial Farmers Union received calls from farmers who were ordered to pack and leave, and some were evicted just last week by new owners who also took their equipment.

While some government officials including Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono and Robert Mugabe himself have criticised farm grabbers recently, white commercial farmers with the skills to produce food for the nation are being denied land on which to run their operations. At the congress last weekend, the Central Committee produced a report that said: The government has identified idle farm equipment in warehouses and farms. Currently 72 sites have been identified with idle equipment. The ministry is still awaiting an amendment to section 10 of The Farm Equipment Amendment Act which will allow the ministry to disperse the equipment to both A1 and A2 beneficiaries.”