Two farmers arrested over Chipinge land fight

By Alex Bell
28 January 2010

Two farmers were arrested on Thursday over an ongoing land battle in Chipinge, where four other farmers have been convicted of refusing to vacate ‘state’ land.

Algernon Taffs, Mr Z.F Joubert, Mike Odendaal and Mike Jahme were all ordered to leave their properties this week after being convicted of refusing to leave their properties. Joubert’s son, Dawie, and former Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) President Trevor Gifford were then arrested on Thursday after trying to intervene to stop the farmers’ evictions. The pair were both still behind bars Thursday evening facing dubious ‘contempt of court’ charges.

Magistrate Samuel Dzuze on Tuesday found the four farmers guilty of refusing to leave their properties, charges brought against them under the Gazetted Land (Consequential Provisions) Act. These same charges have been laid against more than 150 of the country’s remaining commercial farmers who have tried to hang on to their properties. In separate judgements on Tuesday, the Magistrate sentenced the four farmers to pay US$800 fines and vacate their properties. Only Mike Odendaal from Hillcrest farm, was given more than 24 hours to pack up his belongings, while the others were all supposed to be off their land by Wednesday evening.

A last minute stay of eviction was granted by the High Court on Wednesday after an urgent application was filed by the farmers’ legal representatives shortly after their sentencing. The High Court ruled that they could remain on their properties until the appeal against their conviction and sentences were concluded. But Magistrate Dzuze on Thursday refused to recognise the High Court order and is being accused of ‘grossly exceeding his jurisdiction.’ Joubert and Gifford had tried to deliver a letter to Dzuze clarifying the High Court’s position, but the Magistrate instead responded by ordering their arrest.

Current CFU leader Deon Theron said the arrests are ‘pure intimidation,’ and the charges are ‘totally trumped up’. He also explained that they are now struggling to find the locked up farmers any legal representation for their court appearance on Friday morning, saying attorneys in Chipinge have refused to represent the pair. Theron said they were hoping to convince lawyers in Harare to make the five hour journey to Chipinge to represent the farmers.

The arrests come the day after High Court Judge Barack Patel dismissed a finding by the human rights court of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which ruled that Robert Mugabe’s land grab campaign was unlawful. Justice Patel said the regional Tribunal’s ruling would have no effect in Zimbabwe because of the political upheaval that reversing 10 years of land seizures would cause. He added that enforcing the Tribunal’s ruling would be against Zimbabwe’s domestic laws and agrarian policies, noting that ‘the greater public good must prevail.’

The SADC Tribunal’s ruling in 2008 came as a hard won victory for a group of 79 commercial farmers who had all either lost land, or been targeted for land invasion, under the chaotic land grab campaign. The Tribunal ordered that the government respect those rights and compensate the farmers who had already lost land. As a SADC member state, Zimbabwe was meant to adhere to the Tribunal ruling. But the court win was not the end of the battle for Zimbabwe’s remaining commercial farmers and the often violent land invasions under the guise of land ‘reform’ have continued to intensify.

Meanwhile Defense Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa has this week said the army will be used to ensure that land ‘reform’ is never reversed. He said on Monday at a training course of military cadets that land ‘reform’ is one of the ‘major priorities’ of the defence force. Mnangagwa, a notorious ZANU PF official is himself a land beneficiary of at least one property.

The CFU’s Theron said the statement by Mnangagwa is ‘extremely worrying,’ as it echoes previous threats of military deployment to evict the remaining white farmers in the country. Last year, both Mugabe and Attorney General Johannes Tomana said the military would be deployed to remove farmers ‘who refuse to vacate State owned land’. Theron said they can’t take Mnangagwa’s threats lightly.

“They are only using the police and the magistrates courts to persecute white farmers at the moment, but I’m sure if they want to take it to another level, they will,” Theron said.