Zimbabwe -- Farm Invasions And Security Report

This report does not purport to cover all the incidents that are taking place in the commercial farming areas. Communication problems and the fear of reprisals prevent farmers from reporting all that happens. Farmers names, and in some cases farm names, are omitted to minimise the risk of reprisals.

On Blackmorvale, Chakari, the owners were not allowed to plant any of the 600 hectares of wheat they were due to plant, and settlers have not planted either, despite receiving free seed. The owners have offered half their farm to Government, but have not been allowed to farm for two seasons now.

On Railway Farm 5, Battlefields, the owner was told he is growing his winter cereal crop illegally.

Chipinge - Cattle, in the process of moving from one farm to another for grazing, had some go astray. In his search for the strays, the owner found one had already been slaughtered.

On Exwick Farm, Selous, a Mr Ruinga from the C.I.O, who has been threatening the owner with an AK47, got the keys to the sheds. Several hundred thousand dollars worth of property was stolen. After high-level intervention, the police recovered much of the equipment, but no one was arrested. Mr Makoni, another of the "war vets" who has been causing problems on the farm, demanded the keys to the second homestead and threw out the manager with all his belongings. Nobody was arrested. This is a de-listed farm.

At Naude's Rest Farm, Matabeleland South, A2 settlers ordered the owner's cattle be off the property by the end of June. The owner has no other place to keep these animals, as 100% of the property has been designated.
Poaching is rife, with three zebra found dead last week, and a cow caught in a snare on 13.06.02. Snares are picked up on a daily basis. Police have responded to take reports, but it seems this is where the investigations end.

Chipinge -
Cattle, in the process of moving from one farm to another for grazing, had some go astray. In his search for the strays, the owner found one had already been slaughtered.

Macheke/Virginia -
a DDF tractor was ploughing on one farm and there was fencing stolen on another farm.
A farmer, who was meant to have been delisted, had tractors ploughing up seedbeds.
One farmer encountered a roadblock on his way home, but the issue was resolved.
Various items were stolen on another farm.

Selous -
On Exwick Farm a Mr Ruinga from the C.I.O, who has been threatening the owner with an AK47, got the keys to the sheds. Several hundred thousand dollars worth of property was stolen. After high-level intervention, the police recovered much of the equipment, but no one was arrested.
Mr Makoni, another of the "war vets" who has been causing problems on the farm, demanded the keys to the second homestead and threw out the manager with all his belongings. Nobody was arrested. This is a de-listed farm.

Suri-Suri -
On Kasama Farm three cattle were discovered killed, and there are signs of more cattle killed recently as well.

Chakari -
On Deweras Farm C.I.O individuals continue to use pipes commandeered from the owner. They are growing twelve hectares of wheat, and have prevented the owner from growing wheat on the other 70 hectares. They now want the owner's boom sprayers and other equipment. The owner previously gave up two farms to Government and this is now his only farm.
On Chevy Chase the owner has still not been allowed to plant any wheat despite doing land prep and being on an unlisted farm.
On Blackmorvale the owners were not allowed to plant any of the 600 hectares of wheat they were due to plant, and settlers have not planted either, despite receiving free seed. The owners have offered half their farm to Government, but have not been allowed to farm for two seasons now.

Battlefields -
On Railway Farm 5 the owner was told he is growing his winter cereal crop illegally.

General -
Farmers are pressurised to make deals. The international banks demand letters of comfort, which are not issued by the authorities, although the authorities state that if farmers give land to Government a letter will be issued. We, the regional Office, do not know of any cases where a letter has been issued by the acquiring authority to date. The local banks appear to be happy to still give loans.
In Kadoma, district officials visit farmers and tell them to stop production and to be out of their houses within the 90-day limit from the issuing of the Section 8.

Masvingo East and Central -
in general, there have been teams under the Land Committee's and Agritex' auspices, going around to certain properties over the weekend. These teams collected owners' details on farming background, hectarage previously planted, cattle previously stocked, water supplies, dams etc, and in some cases enquired how many bedrooms are in the homestead.
Bon Air Farm is experiencing an upsurge in snaring of game. A snare was removed from one Brahman bull.
There are reports of plenty of fencing stolen.
At Shallock Park Farm, a person driving in a vehicle approached the owner and threatened him and the labour with eviction within 24 hours. This person was believed to be on his way to the beer hall on Yettom Farm. This incident was reported to the PA and the Police. Police have reacted and have said that they will follow up.

Save Conservancy -
The promised group of 40 people from Support Unit arrived on the night of 12.06.02, but only 22 members were dispersed. Since then six of them have been pulled back. To date 28 arrests have been made.
Poaching escalation continues.

Gutu / Chatsworth -
the Nuwejaar Farm owner reports an upsurge in stock theft this past week. Two beef and two dairy cows were stolen.
There is a corresponding increase in wire theft, which has led to the manufacture of snares, some of which were recovered in the farm paddocks.
A dairy cow and the owner's farm dog recently had snares removed from them.
Bath Farm reports occupants in an unregistered vehicle visited the owner and made requests for soil samples, figures, amounts of equipment etc for "resettlement purposes".

Mwenezi -
Ongoing cutting and clearing, movement of people, theft and continued poaching.
At Lot 21A the owner caught a man by the name of James Mhlanga, in possession of a firearm; a rifle with the butt cut off. The offender is said to be working for the Farm Development Trust, and drives a vehicle with registration number 672-542B. The owner followed Mhlanga to the end of his property, where Mhlanga resides on an allocated plot of ground.

Matabeleland South -
Sandown North Farm and Sections of Sandown South report that A2 settlers have moved about 120 head of weaners, and another 39 cattle on to the property recently. Unconfirmed reports are that the cattle came from Masvingo. The owner has not been able to check what permits were obtained for this. This section of property is the last area the owner has to keep his cattle since he was ordered to remove all cattle from Sandown North by Croft Ndlovu (Senior War Vet in Plumtree) in June 2000.
At Naude's Rest Farm, A2 settlers ordered the owner's cattle be off the property by the end of June. The owner has no other place to keep these animals, as 100% of the property has been designated.
Poaching is rife, with three zebra found dead last week, and a cow caught in a snare on 13.06.02. Snares are picked up on a daily basis. Police have responded to take reports, but it seems this is where the investigations end.

To: *AfricaWatch; Cincinatus' Wife; sarcasm; Travis McGee; Byron_the_Aussie; robnoel; GeronL; ZOOKER; ..

So glad that the Bush/Powell team has exercised so much leverage in this area to protect the oppressed. (End sarcasm.)

I wuld be happier had Bush been more forceful, but the response of the United States is an order of magnitude more forceful than my own Commonwealth.

The black socialist governments there are a bunch of crooks... They've been stealing land from the white settlers for years under the auspices of 'land reform' (a.k.a. legal plunder.) This when their not butchering their families. And what does the West do... The UK says they need to sit down and talk about land reform and work something out.

You're seeing the future when whites become a minority in the west.

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