Posted on 06/25/2002 3:20:37 AM PDT by Clive
Harare - A 45-day countdown for 3,000 white Zimbabwean farmers to abandon their land began on Tuesday, but many vowed to stay put rather than watch vital crops rot as the nation is short of food.
"Some people actually have no choice. They will farm from tomorrow morning," Jenni Williams, spokesperson for the Commercial Farmer's Union (CFU), said late on Monday.
She said the farmers would finalise on Tuesday morning papers seeking a court ruling to stop the order.
The farmers were given until midnight on Monday to stop working the land and just over a month to leave entirely after President Robert Mugabe's government amended its land acquisition law last month.
The order to stop farming was the latest shot by the government in its battle to seize white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks - which it asserts is needed to redress the imbalances of the colonial era.
Conclusion
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made told Zimbabwe state radio that the government was moving to finalise the farm seizures, and agricultural officials would soon be sub-dividing the targeted farms for redistribution to blacks.
"The matter is that we are proceeding in terms of the laws of Zimbabwe, and those farms which have been served with Section 8 (to seize operations within 45 days) would be acquired in that particular process," he added.
"We have to bring this matter to a conclusion," he said when asked about farmers having to stop operations.
Deadlines
A senior agricultural official said farmers were using deadlines to leave to pump up publicity for their cause and denigrate the government.
"These white farmers are trying to wage a propaganda war out of this (the deadline to stop farming operations) ... yet a lot of these farmers were notified two years ago that this is going to happen," the spokesperson said.
"The problem with these people is that they believe that if they cry they are going to get this process reversed... But these farmers are fooling themselves, because we are not going to accept again a situation where the indigenous (black) people of this country are denied land and just work for the whites".
The official - who declined to be named - said many white farmers had more than one farm, and very large tracts of land.
Under the new law passed in May, farmers with land targeted for seizure were ordered to stop their activities 45 days from May 10. They must vacate by August 10 and could face two years in prison and a fine for doing farm- related work from Tuesday.
Threatens crucial winter crop
Williams said 2,900 of the CFU's 3,150 members were affected, threatening the crucial winter wheat crop in a country already facing food shortages that many analysts blame on the "fast-track" land programme.
The controversial land programme is being carried out as the economy collapses, unemployment and inflation rise and the value of the Zimbabwean currency crumbles.
Mugabe, in power for 22 years, is accused by the West and the domestic opposition of stealing a March presidential election and using the state to stifle dissent.
It a 45 day notice of eviction from their homes.
In the clear words of the Statute, the land has already been taken away from them.
Everything from this point on is a formality,
The article talks about 2,900 of the CFU's 3,150 members being affected. A year ago, the membership of the CFU was about 4,500.
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Any African-Americans out there that want reparations here it is. Forty acres and a mule....go get it!
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