Chegutu farmer Ben Freeth, who last week concluded an awareness-raising trip to the United States, on Tuesday said that the intervention of the United Nations will be critical for Zimbabwe’s future. He also expressed concern that nations such as Britain will not move against Robert Mugabe.

Freeth travelled to Washington last week to appeal in person to the Barack Obama administration, asking them to pressure the Zimbabwe government to stop the ongoing seizures of commercial land. Freeth has previously written four times to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai pleading for him to intervene in the wave of farm invasions that have in the past year alone resulted in the forced seizure of more than 80 farms. The farm attacks have left over 66,000 farm workers without jobs and homes, while at the same time absolutely no food is being produced, despite the country still facing a critical food crisis.

But Freeth’s pleas have fallen on deaf ears and Tsvangirai has done nothing to intervene despite the worsening situation on farms across the country. Freeth insists that, “Tsvangirai could at least be calling for action. He doesn’t seem interested in doing anything to get the rule of law respected”. In desperation Freeth decided to take his case to Washington, where he met several concerned legislators, NGOs and other groups sympathetic to the Zimbabwe crisis. He has now taken his case to the UK. But Freeth told SW Radio Africa that his hopes for international intervention still rest on the US, and its ability to force to the UN to intervene.

“It would appear that the British are more politically correct and seem to have fallen into Mugabe’s propaganda trap,” Freeth said. “The Americans will hopefully force the UN to see reason and make them intervene in Zimbabwe’s crisis.”

The attacks against the remaining commercial farming community meanwhile are continuing, with observers expressing fears that the land ‘reform’ programme, initiated in 2000, will be completed by the end of the year and there will be no commercial farmers left. The attacks themselves have proved the motive is not land redistribution, but rather greed, with one of the country’s most successful indigenous black farmers being illegally evicted from his land last week.

Luke Tembani, 72, has been successfully farming in Manicaland since 1983, but in the past year he has fought an increasingly difficult battle to stay on his land. He first faced eviction earlier this year after the state run Agricultural Bank of Zimbabwe (Agribank) sold his farm to recover a loan he had borrowed more than a decade ago to expand his farm. In desperation Tembani turned to the human rights court of the Southern African Development Community (SADC Tribunal), telling the court that the bank had reneged on a deal to allow him to sell part of his farm to settle the loan.

According to court documents, Tembani defaulted on part of his repayments in 1997 as Zimbabwe’s economic crisis unfolded. Documents filed with the Tribunal stated that the bank had sold the farm in 2000, without any court hearings, even though Tembani was still living on it. In June the SADC Tribunal ruled that Agribank’s repossession and sale of Tembani’s farm was ‘illegal and void’, and ordered the government to take all necessary measures not evict Tembani and his family. But as with all other orders by the Tribunal, which the government has decided it no longer recognises, the ruling has been wholly ignored, and Tembani’s eviction was carried out last week.

At the same time, the rampant theft on Charles Lock’s Karori farm in the Headlands district has continued, despite the intervention of Judge President Rita Makarau. Lock has received numerous court orders against Brigadier General Justin Mujaji, who is heading the invasions on Karori Farm. But Mujaji, who is related through marriage to Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, has ignored every order including those passed down by Makarau. Mujaji last week even appeared before Makarau to say her orders would be honoured, but the theft has continued regardless. Makarau has reportedly given Mujaji two weeks to comply with her orders, but by that time, there will be nothing left for Lock to claim.

Meanwhile, there has been no move by the government to claim the money offered by the European Commission for a comprehensive and ‘transparent’ land audit. The head of the Commission, Xavier Marchal, last week said the money was available to the government to complete the audit, the promise of which had been shelved because of the government’s financial restraints. But the money is yet to be claimed, and it is widely understood that the ZANU PF dominated government does not want the full truth of the land ‘reform’ programme made public, as it would clearly show how the ruling party chefs are mostly the ones who have benefited.

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