Tsvangirai again downplays severity of land attacks

By Alex Bell
22 June 2009

In comments to the international media Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has once again moved to downplay the severity of the farm invasions, creating a ripple of anger across the commercial farming community.

In an interview on Sunday with the UK’s BBC ‘Andrew Marr Show’, Tsvangirai again referred to the current wave of farm invasions as isolated incidents, saying: “The incidence of so-called farm invasions, I can count them.” He also moved to dismiss the critical fact that farm production had been halted in Zimbabwe, saying the farm invasions are “not an explosion that it is almost like we have started all over again to disrupt farm productions.” Tsvangirai then said during an interview on Monday with the BBC’s Radio Four, that the political parties had agreed to a land audit, as an answer to the current land attacks, despite the fact that a comprehensive land audit will take several years to complete.

In May, Tsvangirai shocked the embattled farming community by referring to the ongoing farm attacks as ‘isolated incidents’ that had been ‘blown out of proportion’. Observers argued that Tsvangirai was merely fulfilling his role as the country’s money magnet, as the farm attacks have critically swayed Western governments away from handing over developmental aid to the unity government. But while the government has treated the often violent land attacks and illegal prosecution of farmers as a mere embarrassment, the offensive against the farmers has intensified.

Trevor Gifford, the President of the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), expressed great concern that the Prime Minister has again dismissed the attacks, saying Tsvangirai is playing a ‘game’ in an attempt to secure government funding. He explained that the attacks on farmers are likely to intensify, saying the government “has always wanted the remaining commercial, white farmers off farms.” Gifford continued that farmers “are being persecuted and abused,” in farm attacks that have been “all but legalised in terms of the law, because of offer letters.”

Chegutu Farmer Ben Freeth at the same time expressed concern that the “truth of the farm attacks has become the biggest casualty in this situation.” Freeth’s Mount Carmel Farm has come under repeated attack this year by thugs working for ZANU PF top official, Nathan Shamuyarira. Freeth, his family and his staff have been repeatedly and violently threatened, while his farm has been taken over by invaders. Freeth’s farm stock, including thousands of US dollars worth of maize and mangoes, have been sold off, and local police have done nothing to prevent the attacks from taking place.

“When the truth becomes a casualty then everything starts to fall apart,” Freeth said. “Our country is in dire need to locally produced food, and simply anyone who eats is now the loser in this fight.”