Zimbabwe will arrest white farmers who failed to meet a weekend deadline to vacate their land for newly resettled black farmers, ZimOnline reported on Tuesday.
It quoted Security Minister Didymus Mutasa as saying: ”Those that are saying they will defy the law will soon find out that they are not clever at all when the police start doing their job. They will be arrested.”
Mutasa, who is also in charge of land reform, said authorities were still gathering information on which farmers had left and who had refused to do so.
Under the government’s Gazetted Farms (Consequential Provisions) Act, the white farmers concerned had until last Saturday to vacate their properties.
At least 150 out of the remaining 600 white farmers were issued with eviction notices last year under the new Act.
The main white farmer representative body, the Commercial Farmers’ Union, advised its members at the weekend to defy the directive to move out.
It said arrests were the only way their case could be heard. — Sapa