Posted on 06/26/2002 4:23:11 PM PDT by Clive
A group of farmers have formed the Justice for Agriculture, which seeks to challenge the government legally on farm acquisitions.
The leader of the group, David Connolly of Bulawayo said, “dialogue has not yielded results and farmers face eviction without conviction. The legal action we plan represents an alternative route to our case.”
In a related development the former chairman of the Commercial Farmers’ Union’s Cereals Producers Association, Robert Macmanus was arrested on Sunday at his Rutope farm about 60 km along the Harare/Shamva road.
When The Daily News visited the farm on Monday, both the farmer’s son Christopher, and his mother were away.
A worker on the farm who declined to be identified said it was not clear why the farmer had been arrested.
But a source said Macmanus could have been arrested because he is accused of providing transport to a group of settlers on a farm that has been earmarked for a senior government official.
It was not clear on Monday whether Macmanus had been released or not.
In another development, most farmers along the Shamva road were working at full throttle on Monday and it remains to be seen whether or not the farmers will abide by the amendment to the controversial Land Acquisition Act, under which a farm automatically becomes State land once the owner is served with a Section 8 notice.
The notice under the amendment which came into effect on 10 May, now constitutes a notice to stop farming after 45 days and to vacate the homestead within 90 days.
The 45-day notice expired on Monday for farmers served with Section 8 orders.
About 653 families and at least 15 154 farm- worker families have been evicted from their homes since February 2000 and have been unable to return.
The figure translates to 76 000 people displaced since the beginning of the farm invasions in February 2000.
The invasions have seen assets valued at $7,9 billion being either seized, impounded or looted from 632 farms.
The Commercial Farmers’ Union said that 857 single-owned farms have been seized despite the government’s policy of one farm for one owner. In Other News:
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