Farm workers stand up to Squatters, War Vets

The workers, aiming to protect their livelihoods, formed a cordon and forced the would-be squatters to gather reinforcements from a nearby shanty settlement.

But workers from neighbouring farms joined the cordon, swelling its strength to about 150 men, and told leaders of the outnumbered ex-guerrillas and squatters – who were armed with axes, spears and clubs – to advance no further.

Thursday’s standoff, one of several similar confrontations around the country, marked a potentially explosive escalation in the political crisis that began when a motley assortment of unemployed squatters, led by so-called war vets and Zanu youth militia, started re-occupying the remaining 300 white-owned farms after the controversial March 29 poll.

The standoff near Kotwa ended with the withdrawal of the would-be squatters by nightfall – a move negotiated by police.

Zimbabwe’s main labour federation accused the ruling elite of enriching themselves and failing to implement land reform.

The war veterans, the landless and the workers are one and the same, why are they fighting against each other?’ said Wellington Chibebe, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. Only an orderly process will ensure peace in our country. Once again, it is the working class who are being short-changed.

Robert Mugabe, the head of the military junta, has refused to stop illegal occupations of privately owned land, arguing that it was a justified political protest in light of alleged plans by the MDC to return stolen land to the rightful owners. The MDC’s election manifesto outlines a workable, equitable and just solution to the land problem.

Farmers accuse Mugabe of allowing squatters to remain on white farms as a political ploy to shore up his party’s waning support ahead of the presidential election run-off expected later this month.

Caught in the middle are the black farm workers, who feel they will lose their income if the squatters force out the remaining white farmers and the land is broken up into small holdings.