Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe vowed on Thursday to continue with the state’s seizure of white-owned farms, despite rising tensions over a wave of evictions since a new power-sharing government seven weeks ago.
His remarks published in the government mouthpiece Herald newspaper, come amid a wave of seizures, evictions, theft of property on farms, attacks on workers and prosecutions of white farmers.
Mugabe called allegations of farm invasions ”wicked lies” and insisted the appropriation programme was ”legal”.
In February a coalition government was formed between foes Mugabe and new Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change.
That agreement specified that the new administration will ensure the rule of law is observed throughout the country and that farmers be allowed to produce crops without disruptions.
Western donors have said they will hold back on helping to bail out the bankrupt government until there are clear signs that human rights reforms are taking place.
On Wednesday Finance Minister Tendai Biti, from the MDC, said he and the party were determined to ”get Zimbabwe back on its feet again”, but, he added, ”We are very unhappy with the situation on the farms.”
In Thursday’s Herald, Mugabe told his party’s central committee: ”Those who now wish to cause confusion by claiming there are farm invasions should be warned that their malicious and wicked lies will not deter government from its pledge to economically empower the people … through legal means.”
A ”revolutionary land reform programme” launched by 85-year-old Mugabe in 2000 has seen about 50 white farmers and their workers murdered by Zanu-PF militias, about a million workers made homeless and the collapse of the agricultural sector
White farmers’ lobby groups say about 100 farmers have come under renewed pressure to force them off their land since the coalition government came into being.
Last weekend, Mike Campbell (74) who has led a legal campaign to try to force the government to allow them to remain on their land and to ensure authorities protect them from persecution, was forced off his farm, Mount Carmel, the country’s biggest mango producer, in the Chegutu district 100km west of Harare.
A relative of an elderly member of Mugabe’s politburo kicked down the kitchen door and gave Campbell two hours to leave, said his son-in-law, Ben Freeth.
”There is chaos now, there is a total breakdown of law and order,” he said.
Campbell’s manager, Martin Joubert, and seven workers were arrested by police on allegations of ”kidnapping” the team of invaders, and are expected to spend the weekend in jail in Chegutu after a magistrate dismissed their application for bail.
Occupiers on the farm immediately began removing mangoes and selling them in the Chegutu market, he said. – Sapa-DPA