The daughter of Zimbabwean Vice-President, Joice Mujuru, has helped herself to Ashcott farm, situated on prime agricultural land about 150km northeast of the capital, Harare.
Armed with an offer letter issued by Intelligence and Land Reform Minister Didymus Mutasa, Kumbirai Madzima and her husband, Tapiwa, arrived three weeks ago on the farm and told the owner, Darryl Zietmann, to pack, giving him just two days to vacate the land.
Her mother, Mujuru, is known as a staunch supporter of the government’s expulsion of white farmers, and has herself benefited from the policy, living on the requisitioned farm, Alamein, 70km south of Harare.
The Mail & Guardian has learnt that the Madzimas arrived with four helpers in their Ford pick-up on the 341ha farm. Zietmann had to hurriedly borrow a neighbour’s truck to pack most of his belongings, which he took to Harare, where he is now staying. The rest of his goods he is storing on a friend’s farm in the area.
Ashcott is in the Mashonaland central province, situated on the wheat and orange belt that has sustained the country with food.
Zietmann last season produced 40ha of soya beans, 10ha of seed maize, 10ha of commercial maize and 40ha of tobacco, which he harvested, paying off a loan he obtained from the AgriBank.
”Fortunately for him the couple stormed in just after he had harvested and settled his loans,” the M&G was informed.
Zietmann got a call from the Madzimas on August 2 advising him that they were the new owners of the property.
A meeting was hastily arranged the following day and Zietmann got to know of his fate in person and immediately ”indicated he was prepared to leave given the profile of the individual he was dealing with …”
But the couple also made a further offer when they arrived on the farm. ”The wife [Kumbirai] said she wanted to buy plates, sofas, tapestry and a piece of art,” an eyewitness told the M&G. The farm owner indicated that he would compile an inventory. EveryÂÂthing in the farmhouse, according to rough estimates, is worth about Zim$700-million (R46 000). The owner took it with him to Harare but hasn’t heard from the Madzimas who have since settled on the farm.
More than 20 new settlers have also joined them on Ashcott.
Zietmann did not want to comment. Tapiwa Madzima denied that they were already occupying the farm, saying the couple had applied but were still waiting ”to get a farm like any other citizen”.
And while the land resettlements continue unabated, President Robert Mugabe has recently warned that new black farmers should produce food on farms taken from whites or have the land seized by the government.
Former Grain Marketing Board chief executive, now opposition Movement for Democratic Change secretary for agriculture, Renson Gasela, has expressed his concern that most of the land reform beneficiaries ”haven’t got the slightest idea about farming”.
”They are relying on the expertise of remaining farm workers, who have to advise them what to plant, when to plant, pesticides needed and estimates of financial resources required,” he added.