| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa Subsaharan |
| Zim continues with crackdown on white farmers |
| 2009-05-29 |
| [Mail and Globe] President Robert Mugabe's controversial "land reform programme" took a new twist on Wednesday when a court ordered the eviction of a man who is not a farmer. Ian Campbell-Morrison (46) lives in the Vumba Mountains in eastern Zimbabwe, next to a hotel where he is the green keeper. He and his wife live in a cottage on a plot not much bigger than a suburban garden, where she tends flowers. The Campbell-Morrisons used to farm tobacco and coffee, but the government seized their land and the farmhouse and gave it to a government official, leaving the couple their cottage and the garden around it, said Hendrik Olivier, director of the Commercial Farmers' Union, made up mostly of Zimbabwe's remaining 350 white farmers. A magistrate in the nearby city of Mutare nevertheless sentenced Campbell-Morrison to a fine of $800 for "illegally occupying state land" and ordered the couple to be off the property by Saturday. The Campbell-Morrisons are one of 140 white farming families facing eviction from their land in the latest tactic in Mugabe's violent, lawless campaign to force white landowners -- numbering about 5 000 when it started in 2000 -- off their farms. The action is in the name of a redistribution of land to black Zimbabweans,but which has instead made a million former farm workers homeless and set off the collapse the once-prosperous country's economy. Mugabe has declared all white-owned land to be state property and banned farmers from taking the government to court. The evictions and violence have continued despite the establishment in February of a power-sharing government between Mugabe and former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, with an agreement to restore the rule of law and to "ensure security of tenure to all land holders". Tsvangirai, now prime minister, began by promising to end the lawlessness, promising that "no crime [by invaders] will go unpunished," but the police -- under the control of staunchly pro-Mugabe security chiefs -- continued to refuse to act against the mostly well-heeled Mugabe loyalists grabbing productive farms and selling their crops. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 I was MAG gunner with 6 Trp, 1RLI for a while, Besoeker, couldn't hht sh!t with an FN!! ...They pull up and to the right, and I'd far rather have 10 belts of 50 than a few magazines, even with the stoppages I had, mostly self-inflicted(!). Never sax an FN have a problem. but then they were only on Double-tap |
| Posted by: rhodesiafever 2009-05-29 21:12 |
| #6 LOL, Besoeker! And, Glenmore, I am sure your friends offsprimg will be OK in Botswana. A good place, they shoot poachers there. I remember being there when the first one was shot. verdict was it was a good thing. No problems in Bots apart from a bit of over-spill from Bobs-ville. |
| Posted by: rhodesiafever 2009-05-29 20:47 |
| #5 Must surely be a loaded FN lying somewhere handy RF, whahaha. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-05-29 20:29 |
| #4 Well, 100 gazillion Zimbucks to One Post-Crunch US dollar says he's working as a green-keeper at LEOPARDS ROCK hotel, probably running the whole golf course. Any 'burgers up for a round of cross-bow golf to give the chap a hand? .,.Morgan bettah get a grip, it's not easy, although on the edgd of Mashona territory. it aint Matabeleland. RWV is right. it is prime Real Estate, (for 1st World leisure. at 1st World prices). |
| Posted by: rhodesiafever 2009-05-29 20:09 |
| #3 There is still a small amount of food being produced in Zimbabwe. His work is not done yet. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ca 2009-05-29 14:32 |
| #2 Someone wanted their house. Having stole the big pieces, the kleptocrats are vacuuming up anything of value remaining. May they all starve in peace. |
| Posted by: rwv 2009-05-29 08:29 |
| #1 Starvation, crime, and tribal genocide are tools of natural selection. All meddling post-colonials must go! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-05-29 07:54 |