Two white Zimbabwean farmers are to be charged for refusing to vacate their land, ZimOnline reported on Wednesday.
Another 50 white landowners across the country had meanwhile been ordered to surrender their properties, the Commercial Farmers Union said.
Vice-president Trevor Gifford said the two farmers would appear next Tuesday in the magistrate’s court in the farming town of Karoi in the Mashonaland West province.
”They are being accused of ignoring eviction notices that were served on them,” he said.
”The tragedy is that the two are some of the best in tobacco and cereals. One of them had just delivered 1 000 tonnes of maize to the Grain Marketing Board; now he is going to be prosecuted for doing that.”
State Security, Lands and Land Reform Minister Didymus Mutasa confirmed that the government would bring charges against some white farmers for ignoring eviction orders.
”Yes, the process has started. Those who refuse to comply with eviction orders are slowing down our land reform programme and will face the music.”
The government — which said earlier it had ended farm seizures to focus on raising production — has renewed land grabs in the last three weeks.
Under the government’s land-seizure laws, a farmer cannot challenge the expropriation of his land by the government in court and faces jail for removing equipment from the farm.
Only about 600 out of an estimated 4 000 large-scale producing white commercial farmers remained in Zimbabwe.
According to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe the farm seizures, which begin in 2000, were meant to correct an unjust land-tenure system that reserved 75% of the best arable land for minority whites.
Blacks were cramped on poor soils, a situation that has been blamed for plunging Zimbabwe into severe food shortages.
The Southern African country that was once a regional breadbasket has largely survived on food hand-outs from international relief agencies for the past six years. It would require more food aid this year for at least a quarter of its 12-million people, ZimOnline reported. – Sapa