Zimbabwe: Concerns Raised Over Security of White Farmers
By Eric Sande
HARARE---Fear and panic reigns on the remaining white farmers in Zimbabwe as a security lapse engulf their commercial farms. A Zimbabwean white farmers' organization said Thursday , October 28, they had seen a "renewed onslaught" of farm seizures and attacks.
It was reported on Monday, early hours of darkness October 25, one prominent farmer Kobus Joubert, 67- former Zimbabwe Tobacco Association head and top tobacco grower was brutally murdered at his farm in Selous in a cold bold shooting which targeted his head at point-blank range. The assailants vanished with US$10,000.
Deon Theron who is head of the commercial farmers' union said “The shooting at point blank range of another white farmer in the Selous district of Zimbabwe again highlights the deteriorating situation currently being faced in the rural farming areas. The alleged beneficiaries of the farms and their hired thugs are taking the law into their own hands, breaking into homesteads using bolt cutters and locking the owners out, leaving them with nothing but the clothes they are wearing.”
A dwindling number of white farmers close to 400, from nearly 5,000 a decade ago still own land in the Zimbabwe. The sharp decrease came when Mugabe’s government started seizing the land in a bid to redress imbalances created by a century of colonialism.
Theron, in a statement said "This signals the start of a renewed onslaught against rural communities". He mentioned that in several districts "hired thugs" broke into homesteads and locked the owners out, leaving them with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.
About 4,000 white farmers have been forced from their farms since 2000, disrupting the agriculture-based economy in the former regional breadbasket. Many prize farms went to Mugabe cronies and still lie idle.
Tim Chance, a small scale farmer was killed in an ambush with his own firearms stolen by intruders in an earlier raid on his home in the Somabhula area, near the central city of Gweru.
Mugabe's party and security agencies have been known to deny reports of violent farm seizures. It’s a clear sign of the security forces lack of commitment to intervene in cases where white farmers have come under siege from land invaders.
In the build up to next year’s elections, the refusal of the police to act against the intimidation, threats, violence, evictions and occupations signals the start of a renewed onslaught against rural communities.
The deteriorating situation leaves the world to wonder of how the economy will be in a country that is strugglingto lift sanctions imposed by some foreign countries. Also it is to be remembered that Zimbabwe was the world’s second largest exporter of tobacco. This, together with exports of maize, soyabeans, cotton, sugar, coffee, tea, fruit, vegetables, flowers and beef, made agriculture the major source of foreign currency.
Agriculture contributed more to the gross domestic product than any other industry. It was the largest employer of labour, providing employment for about a third of the total labour force. Zimbabwe earned the reputation of being the breadbasket of central Africa.