Posted on 06/27/2004 7:16:26 AM PDT by Clive
A ROW has erupted among new farmers resettled in Mashonaland East after some farming equipment, which they say was designated for their use, was found stashed at a farm belonging to provincial Governor, David Karimanzira.
Karimanzira, however, told The Standard recently that the farm equipment was brought to the farm without his knowledge.
Said Karimanzira: "A lot of people leave their property at the farm - and that does not mean its mine. Some have left their scotch carts there. We also have our own irrigation pipes at the farm."
The new farmers settled at the AI Saratoga Farm along Shamva Road say some Zanu PF politicians were conniving with senior government officials to deny them farming equipment seized from white former commercial farmers.
Advance Gwangwava - a war veteran also known as "Comrade Stix" - said irrigation pipes from Saratoga were removed on the orders of one Jani from the President's Office and found dumped at Colga Farm along Mtoko Road. Colga belongs to Karimanzira.
"Last year, water pipes were removed and Jani said he had bought them and in order to carry out their removal without interference, he brought with him some police officers from Juru growth point," alleged Gwangwava.
The Standard recently visited Karimanzira's Colga Farm and found huge stacks of irrigation pipes on the property.
A guard at the farm confirmed that a lot of irrigation equipment, including pipes, had been left at the farm but he was not sure who owned them. Most of the pipes were dumped near three giant sheds at the farm when The Standard visited.
"As you can see there are a lot of things that have been brought here and we are not sure which property came from Saratoga and other farms? Unongoonawo nekuwanda kwazvakaita haungazivi kuti zvakabva kupi uye ndezvani, (You can see for yourself; with all this equipment from different places, it is difficult to tell what belongs to who)," said the guard.
Sources at the Governor's office in Marondera said most of the pipes being kept at Colga belonged to Jani, whom they said was a senior official in the President's Office.
According to the sources, Jani was allocated land at a farm in Marondera but could not move onto the property which turned turned out to be council land. Efforts to trace Jani were fruitless.
The new farmers said two well-known people in the area - Martin Kurimba and Steven Nyamukacha - last month even tried to move a giant cold room at Saratoga that was being used to store fresh farm produce on instructions from Jani.
"Jani threatened us by showing us his picture standing next to the President," said one of the new farmers, Kapembedza.
He said only the intervention of the District Administrator for Goromonzi, Erick Samunda, prevented the cold room from being forcibly taken away from Saratoga.
The government recently gazetted a law that bars anyone from removing farm equipment from farms that were listed for resettlement amid widespread reports of looting of such equipment.
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In the Communist paradise, everthing belongs to everybody.
What is a scotch cart?
When nobody owns anything then scarcity is equally shared.
Classic.
I have an acquaintance who owns a home about three times that size. He's in mining and manufacturing though, and not in farming.
You may know it as a "tip cart". It is a two-wheeled horse-drawn cart used for carrying loads on a farm.
Once the horse is unhitched it is like a very large two-wheeled barrow that is easily tipped to dump the load off the tailgate as the wheels are centred on the cart so it roughly balances fore and aft
The quaint Irish dog cart that may be more familiar to you also works on the same principle.
Irrigation pipes? Cold rooms? Agricultural equipment?
In the next stage of Zimbabwean progressive socialism, machetes and cannibal pots will prove more handy.
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