CHIWENGA Constantine – ZDF commander, some of his senior officers are accused of invading commercial farms.
HARARE – Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's office has called a meeting of security and agricultural ministries next week to discuss continuing farm invasions and violence in the country.
Sources in the all-inclusive government said yesterday the Prime Minister's office has been inundated with local and international calls about renewed chaos in the country's commercial farming sector where state security agents and ZANU PF militia are reportedly seizing farms belonging to the few remaining white farmers.
The sources added that the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) had lodged complaints with the Prime Minister's office over the violence on the farms.
Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Gorden Moyo would convene the meeting that will be attended by co-Ministers of Home Affairs Kembo Mohadi and Giles Mutsekwa, Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, National Security Minister, Sydney Sekeramayi, Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri, CIO chief Happyton Bonyongwe, among other security chiefs.
Representatives from the CFU which represents mainly large-scale white commercial farmers were also expected to attend the meeting, whose exact date was yet to be fixed according to sources.
Moyo confirmed that concerns had been raised over the fresh land invasions and violence in the countryside but he was reluctant to confirm whether a meeting to put an end to the disturbances in the commercial farming sector had been scheduled for next week.
What I can say is that the Prime Minister's Office is attending to the issue, said Moyo, adding: We are concerned that such things should be taking place during an inclusive government, he said.
Our sources said Tsvangirai ordered Moyo to convene the meeting although he will not be able to attend as he is away on compassionate leave with his family in South Africa following the loss of his wife in a car accident in which he escaped with head and neck injuries.
Tsvangirai has repeatedly called for a halt to farm invasions. But the message seems to have fallen on deaf ears as Zanu (PF) supporters have invaded more farms over the past weeks, disrupting production in country where millions of people face hunger.
President Robert Mugabe’s remarks on the eve of his 85th birthday, urging all white commercial farmers who had been served with notices after the government acquired their properties to vacate immediately, appeared to have sparked a wave of fresh farm invasions by supporters of his Zanu (PF) party.
A visiting Danish minister Ulla Tornaes on Thursday advised Zimbabwe's new unity government to restore the rule of law and stop farm invasions if it wants to boost its chances of getting much needed aid from the West.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai last month formed a power-sharing government to tackle Zimbabwe's economic and humanitarian crisis.
Tsvangirai has promised to restore relations with Western countries, the IMF and other international institutions while Mugabe used the launch of the government's latest economic recovery programme to plead for foreign assistance to revive Zimbabwe's economy.
Once a model African economy, Zimbabwe is suffering a debilitating economic and humanitarian crisis that is highlighted by the world's highest inflation rate of more than 231 million percent, acute shortages of food and basic commodities.
Western governments, whose support is key to any programme to revive Zimbabwe's comatose economy, have said they would not provide aid to the southern African country until there is evidence the unity government is committed to implementing genuine political and economic reform.
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