Zimbabwe Urges Blacks to Move on to White Farms

yahoo.com ^ | Aug 20, 2002 - 8:30 AM ET | Lucia Mutikani,Reuters

[Cincinatus' Wife]

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's justice minister urged landless blacks Tuesday to move on to white-owned farms, setting the stage for a possible confrontation with white farmers defying eviction orders.

"Those who have been allocated land should move to the farms and utilize it," Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told the state-owned Herald newspaper.

President Robert Mugabe's government, pushing ahead with its land reform program to resettle landless blacks, has ordered 2,900 of the country's remaining 4,500 white commercial farmers to quit their land without compensation, but nearly two-thirds have defied an August 8 deadline and refused to leave their farms.

About 200 defiant farmers had been arrested by late Monday, of which more than 40 have been charged and released on bail. Police said the latest arrest figures for Tuesday were not yet available.

Farmers' lobby group Justice for Agriculture declined to comment on Chinamasa's remarks.

The disruption to agriculture in Zimbabwe, once the bread-basket of southern Africa, comes as millions in the region face food shortages.

Most of the farmers charged since Friday have been ordered not to return to their farms, but a few have been allowed to stay on for a short period to organize their departure.

The government has said it will not allow the farmers to derail its land reforms.

"In fact they (black settlers) should have started moving into the farms when the first 45-day notice period given to the commercial farmers by the government to round up their operations expired," Chinamasa said.

Mugabe, 78, who has been in power since the country gained independence from Britain in 1980, says his land drive is aimed at correcting a colonial injustice which left 70 percent of the best farmland in the hands of white farmers.

White farmers say they support land redistribution but are opposed to the government's methods.

Aid agencies say nearly six million Zimbabweans -- half the national population -- need food aid this year, part of a wider food crisis threatening nearly 13 million people in six southern African countries.

Zimbabwe has been in crisis since pro-government militants led by veterans of the 1970s liberation war began invading white-owned farms in early 2000 in support of the seizures.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Zimbabwean commercial farmer Roy Fuller and his wife Lin pack some of their personal belongings, watched by a removals worker, after they had been given 48 hours to leave their farm August 19, 2002. The deadline expires at midnight tonight. Over 140 commercial farmers have been arrested and detained since the Zimbabwean authorities cracked down on farmers who had not vacated their farms. Photo by Paul Cadenhead/Reuters

Zimbabwean commercial farmers, including Colin Cloete (Commercial Farmers Union President), sit in the Chegutu Magistrates Court holding cells and listen to their lawyers before appearing in court where they were successful in a bail application, August 19, 2002. Over 140 commercial farmers have been arrested and detained by police since the Zimbabwean authorities cracked down on farmers who had not vacated their farms. REUTERS/Paul Cadenhead

Zimbabwean commercial farmer Piet Martin, 82, following his appearance in court August 19, 2002, after 13 farmers from the Selous area were arrested over the weekend. Over 140 commercial farmers have been arrested and detained by police since the Zimbabwean authorities cracked down on farmers who had not vacated their farms. REUTERS/Paul Cadenhead

[Cincinatus' Wife]

'I thought my boss was a devil. Not now, He was my saviour. '*** Charles Mushambati had always regarded Thom Martin as being among those "devil" Zimbabwean white farmers who grossly underpaid their workers and kept them in squalor. With hindsight, he now believes he was wrong. More than 60 white farmers had been arrested around Zimbabwe by yesterday as President Robert Mugabe cracked down on 1,800 farmers who were refusing to leave their land. His confiscation policy is supposedly aimed at helping people such as Mr Mushambati, but the 59-year-old labourer, like most of the 80,000 farm workers who have found themselves unemployed and homeless after their bosses went out of business, has lost his illusions.

Mr Mushambati had often quarrelled with Mr Martin over his wages, and was elated when he attended a rally before the 2000 parliamentary elections at which Mr Mugabe promised "land to my people". The labourer applied for a piece of land, but officials asked him for a Zanu-PF card, demonstrating membership of Mr Mugabe's ruling party, to attach to the application. He didn't have one. "They made it clear that no one would get land without a party card," he said.

Mr Mushambati returned to work for Mr Martin, who paid him 4,000 Zimbabwe dollars (£50) a month. His wife also worked for the white farmer and they received free produce from Mr Martin, and sent their children to a school he built for his employees. "I used to think the boss was a devil, but with hindsight he was not. He was my saviour," said Mr Mushambati.

This is the future now facing Mr Mushambati - a plight often forgotten in the international attention devoted to the white farmers. Mr Martin told his workers last week he had given up the fight for his land and was emigrating to New Zealand. Mr Mushambati asked his employer to take him too. "Unfortunately, the boss said he will not own a farm any more. He is going to work in a hotel in New Zealand," said his employee of 20 years. He broke down. "I am finished. I have no future."***

[shiva]

Section 8

[Consort]

Removals Workers motto: "To the Evictor Belongs the Spoils."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

That's what they're being told. But it's becoming clear that the majority of the farms are going to Mugabe, his family, his friends, his backers, like Gadaafi and his political allies. The thugs who helped him win the election are out in the cold and previously useful gang leaders are now being put in jail to get them out of the way.

[JasonC]

The farms aren't going to anybody. They are reverting to bush. Food production has reportedly fallen by 2/3rds.

Communists believe that production is about physical objects they can steal by grabbing. They have never understood that production is a result of voluntary cooperation. When they use force, they keep the physical objects they think are so important, and destroy the cooperation they don't understand. Production plummets.

Then they blame everyone but themselves, as "wreckers" (i.e. slaves unwilling to work as hard under mere threat as free men do for their own benefit) or "profiteers" (when prices rise because supply has evaporated). They redouble repression, trying to substitute more stick for the missing carrot. Which drives everyone who can still move away from productive activities and the countryside. The collapse snowballs.

So millions die of starvation. Since they can't admit it was all because of their mistaken criminal economic ideas, they take the occasion to direct the starvation at real and imaginary enemies. It happened in Russia in the 30s and not one communist regime has learned from that experience since. Mao did the same thing, Pol Pot did the same thing, Kim Il Sung did the same thing. Now Mugabe does the same thing. And everybody stands around watching, expecting the outcome to somehow be different. It won't be.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

It happened in Russia in the 30s and not one communist regime has learned from that experience since. Mao did the same thing, Pol Pot did the same thing, Kim Il Sung did the same thing. Now Mugabe does the same thing. And everybody stands around watching, expecting the outcome to somehow be different. It won't be.

Maybe they don't expect anything, except what, as you've describe, comes. Kill off your opposition and enslave the rest.

[jjm2111]

BTTT