About 2 900 Zimbabwean farmers, ordered to cease farming under the government’s controversial land reform law giving it sweeping powers to seize farmland, have largely ignored the deadline and continued their business, says Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) representative Jenni Williams.
On May 10 the government amended the Land Acquisition Act to order farmers whose property has been earmarked for acquisition to stop farming 45 days after a notice of acquisition has been issued
and vacate their property within 90 days.
For farmers who had been issued with government notices to take over their property before the law was changed, the 45-day notice period to stop farming came into effect from the day the law was passed.
”A lot … are just going to stay as they cannot stop farming in 45 days. We will have to stand our ground and see what happens,” Williams said.
The affected farmers, according to the CFU, represent about 60% of the white farmers who held about 4 800 title deeds before the controversial land reforms turned violent two years ago.
During this period government supporters, calling themselves war veterans, began occupying white farms and demanded that they be redistributed to landless black Zimbabweans.
Meanwhile, in South Africa, the New National Party (NNP) said the announcement that the white-owned farms should cease operating was the last nail in the coffin of Zimbabwe’s economy and could have fatal consequences for the New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad).
NNP representative for Land Affairs issues Willem Odendaal said: ”If the African Union, that will be formed next month, does not put an end to the tyrannical transgressions of the president of Zimbabwe, then Nepad will be doomed and lack credibility.
”This will result in the failure of this socio-economic plan making it just another landmark on Africa’s road of deterioration.”
Odendaal said president Robert Mugabe’s continued draconic land reform plans would lead to the demolishment of property rights in Zimbabwe.
”It will not only cause famine and poverty, but will also impact negatively on South Africa and other neighbouring countries.”
He said South Africans should expect new pressure on the country’s currency.
”Zimbabwe’s current misery will increase and lead to more unwelcome refugees entering South Africa… This will place more pressure on the availability of scarce infrastructures like housing and jobs. The burden on South African taxpayers will also increase, as the government’s responsibility to provide aid to Zimbabwe increases,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s Land Minister, Joseph Made, was quoted on state radio at the weekend saying the number of farmers affected was much less than the CFU claimed, but would not specify the numbers.
Farmers who ignore the deadline will be liable to two years in jail or a 20 000 Zimbabwe dollars fine or both.
A CFU representative expressed fears of violence on the farms as the deadline passed and farmers vowed to continue working.
”There are fears of violence. We do anticipate there will be violence and we hope it will be curtailed,” said Williams.
Some tobacco farmers who had made a special application to the government to continue farming until the end of next season, early next year, had their request turned down, according to the state-run Herald newspaper.
The CFU representative said on Friday that, in addition to farmers who have to stop operations, an estimated 232 000 farm workers would also have to stop working on Monday in line with the amended law.
Mugabe began land reforms shortly after independence from Britain in 1980, but the programme stalled a few year later.
The latest scheme initially was aimed at moving landless black Zimbabweans onto white-owned lands, but now includes wealthy blacks who want to farm commercially.
Twelve farmers have been killed during the last two years as a result of the violence on the farms. About 70 000 farm workers have lost their jobs because of the land reforms, according to the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers’ Union.
Taken with their families, that means about 350 000 people have lost their livelihoods as the southern African nation, once a regional breadbasket, plunges into a worsening famine that has been blamed in part on the land reforms and in part on the worst drought
to hit the region in a decade. – Sapa-AFP