Mutasa says white farmers have no future in Zimbabwe

By Tererai Karimakwenda
22 January 2007

At the weekend the State security and lands minister Didymus Mutasa is reported to have said white farmers have no future in Zimbabwe and more land would be seized from the few who remain on their properties. The ZimOnline news site said Mutasa was responding to their questions as to whether eviction orders served on 15 white farmers last week meant government was revoking its earlier promise to allocate land to former white farmers. Mutasa is quoted saying: "Only the lucky ones among the outgoing farmers could hope to keep their farms”. This is despite the fact that black farmers allocated plots on commercial farms have not produced enough food to feed themselves or the nation.

Then on Tuesday Reuters news agency reported that Mutasa told them the government was compiling a list of white farmers who would be exempt from eviction, saying: "We are conducting an exercise from the provinces to see who the provincial lands teams would want to remain.”He went on to add: "We are basically looking at those white farmers who have been relating well in terms of good human relationships. Their names will be submitted to me and, after vetting, some will get offer letters for land."

But late last year about half a dozen whites were included in a group of 100 black farmers that received the first 99-year leases from Mugabe himself at a widely publicised ceremony. Those few whites were alleged to have close ties to ZANU-PF and Robert Mugabe. Is this what Mutasa meant by “white farmers who have been relating well in terms of good human relationships?” ZimOnline also quoted him saying the government was clear that the future of farming in the country was black.

John Worsley Worswick of Justice For Agriculture which represents evicted farmers said the vast majority of white farmers have excellent relations with their work force. He said Mutasa sends contradictory and racist views and the skills needed for farming have nothing to do with colour. Worswick explained that disengagement with the white farming community has devastated agriculture and left people starving. He added that this does not mean that farming skills are vested in the whites only.

The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said about 80 farmers have been ordered to leave in the past five months. The most recent batch of eviction notices were served to farmers in the Chiredzi area where 24 white farmers were given notices. By law once the government formally notifies a farmer of its intention to acquire their land, he/she immediately loses all rights to that property and it automatically becomes state land.

Worswick said JAG is encouraging farmers who received these notices “to stay put because there is no mileage in leaving”. He explained that since the farmers have been denied access to the courts, the state must proceed “by way of arrest and prosecute” in which case the farmer gets their day in court after all.
But the constitutional amendment that took away the farmers’ rights to challenge government takeovers is due to be challenged.The Business Day newspaper in South Africa reported Saturday that lawyers for the Mike Campbell firm will attempt to prove the amendment itself is unconstitutional, and "brings the rule of law to an end". They will argue that other modern democracies have no similar laws and this sets Zimbabwe apart from member states in the Southern African Development Community, the Commonwealth and the African Union. Their other argument is that constitutional amendments that change the essence of a constitution and alter its fundamental values are themselves unconstitutional and invalid.

It is estimated that only 400 to 600 white farmers still occupy their land out of about 4 000 that existed before the chaotic land reform programme was initiated in 2000. Observers say Mugabe turned to the land issue to boost his support base after losing a public referendum on the constitution and after losing many parliamentary seats to the opposition. War veterans were used to invade commercial farms and government officials have since seized the opportunity to take productive farm land illegally.