Forced off their farm in Harare at gunpoint, the Richter family were heading to New Zealand to start a new life. Three months down the line, Samantha Richter has switched her allegiance to New Zealand and the Zimbabwe Aquatic Union president, Peter Dalzell has authorised the clearance, following a request by the Richters.
“We have authorised her to swim for New Zealand since the family has decided to emigrate. New Zealand requested a clearance and we gave them. What is left is for the New Zealand swimming board to write to the world swim body, FINA informing them about the new development. She will need a stand down period of 12 months before she can represent New Zealand,” Dalzell said.
Samantha, who was based at the Pretoria High Performance Centre in South Africa, has joined her mother, her mother and father, Sharon and Bruce, and younger sisters Nicky and Kimberley. She was offered a full scholarship at York St John University.
But at that moment, her heart was breaking for her father – a man who had spent the past 18 years building his farm into a multimillion-dollar business.
“He would have stayed if he didn’t have us kids,” Samantha said. “All he wants is for us to be safe.”
Samantha competed in the World Championship trials in Auckland in December, where she won the 50m butterfly.
It was May 31 last year when the Richter’s farm was taken over by so-called war veterans under President Robert Mugabe’s sanctioned land grab of white-owned properties. Samantha remembers because it was her father’s 44th birthday. She had tried calling but had failed to get through. A day later, she received a call from her distraught mother who whispered down the line that their farm was gone.
When 75 armed veterans had stormed on to the Richter property, Bruce and Sharon and their youngest daughter, Kimberly, were at home. Nicky was at boarding school and Samantha was in Pretoria.
Locked in overnight, the Richters watched as the veterans set fire to their gardens, then killed a cow and smeared its blood across the windows.
“They were playing drums and screaming and singing,” Samantha said. “[The family] had to pack up everything in a few hours. They left with just a few suitcases.”
The Richters had already seen farms around them taken.
“Since it started about seven years ago, our farm had been fine,” Samantha said.
“Then they started telling us to leave. A couple of squatters moved on to the farm, taking land for themselves. Which was fine, my dad let them. Then they decided they wanted us off, so they came and just took it.”
About 400 labourers had worked on the farm.
After the eviction, her family rented a house on a small ostrich farm in the same town but were soon chased out by police and the veterans.
They hid in a small house in the mountains about two hours out of Harare for a year, waiting for their New Zealand application to be approved.
“They would go back to the old town and see friends but they couldn’t really speak to them because they were scared of something bad happening to them because they were in contact with my dad,” she said, tears in her eyes.
Samantha was Zimbabwe’s only medal winner at the 8th All Africa Swimming Championships held in Senegal held in September last year.
She earned three bronze Medals for the 50m butterfly (29.13sec), 100m freestyle ( 59.44sec) and 50m freestyle (27.56sec) to underline the benefit of her current full-time status at the Pretoria High Performance Centre in South Africa.
Sam’s 50m butterfly was a new Zimbabwe 17-year age group record, as was her 100m-butterfly time of 1min 05.00sec. – CAJ News
Post published in: Zimbabwe Sports News