Shamuyarira’s nephew orders farmers off their land

By Violet Gonda
25 February 2009

John Worsley-Worswick, head of Justice for Agriculture, said ZANU PF spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira’s nephew gave farmers Ben Freeth and Mike Campbell a 5pm Wednesday deadline to get off their Mount Carmel farm in Mashonaland West. This is a farm protected by a SADC tribunal ruling.

There are dozens of white commercial farmers who have had their farms invaded by Mugabe cronies this month alone, in total disregard of the regional ruling.

Worsley-Worswick said the farm being targeted by Shamuyarira’s nephew, Peter Chamada, is in the Chegutu/Chinhoyi area. The farm boasts tourist lodges and is a huge exporter of mangoes. It’s reported that Chamada visited the farmers Wednesday morning and told them if they were not out by 5pm they would be removed by force. Mike and his wife Angela have left the farm, as Mike is still weak from the beatings and torture he was subjected to during their abduction on Sunday 28 June, the day after the June 27 Presidential run-off election.

The JAG official said there has been a huge escalation of farm invasions in the last few weeks in this particular area, as it is at the heart of the SADC tribunal challenge. The applicants who took the regime to court in Namibia should be totally protected by SADC who ruled in their favour, but he said a directive was issued by ZANU PF saying the SADC farmers should be specifically targeted.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told a press conference in Harare that the disruptions of farming operations is undermining the revival of the agricultural sector and undermining investor confidence. He said he has “tasked the Ministers of Home Affairs, Giles Mutsekwa and Kembo Mohadi, to bring the full weight of the law down on the perpetrators who continue to act within a culture of impunity and entitlement. No person in Zimbabwe is above the law.”