Mazoe | Monday
AN elderly farmer and his wife, who have been kept confined to their house under guard by Zanu-PF youth militia for 37 days, had to abandon their farm in Mazoe on Saturday as the farmer needed medical attention.
The Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said in a media statement on Sunday that the farm — 30km from Harare — was under a compulsory notice of acquisition, but the owners were to argue their case in administrative court.
Thomas Bayley (89) and his wife, Edith (79) were both in poor health and their son and his wife — who lived in another house on the farm — had been forcibly evicted by war veterans a few weeks earlier.
”Comments made to the Bayleys by the war veterans and police officers have led the Bayley’s to believe that some ‘big shot’ wants their farm,” CFU representative Jenni Williams said.
The occupation began when war veterans arrived on the farm on March 13. They beat up the workshop foreman and his two brothers with steel bars and chains to get keys to the workshop, tool cupboards and diesel tanks. One of the men died from these injuries a week later, Bayley’s son said.
Two days later a crowd of about 40 people occupied the farm.
A police assistant inspector came to the farm, but said he was unwilling to take any action before consulting his superiors. The next day the police returned to charge Bayley junior with possession of an antique set of traffic lights which he said he had acquired legitimately from the City of Harare scrap heap in 1988.
The following week the district administrator, three members of the local Lands Committee and a police inspector came to the farm and advised the ”war veterans” to vacate the security-fenced area around the house, but the war veterans refused.
They then also evicted the farm workers from their houses and moved in, Williams said. – Sapa