It is essential that a moratorium be called on the prosecution of
white farmers and immediate cessation of the violence in the productive
farming sector, the CFU said in an interim report sent to Tsvangirai
last week.
About 200 white farmers face eviction after they were served with notices, some dating as far back as two years ago.
Police said last week they were proceeding with arrest of white farmers
defying court orders to vacate farms seized by the government under its
controversial land reform programme.
However, it emerged last week the farmers were imploring Prime Minister
Tsvangirai to immediately call for a moratorium on the prosecution of
white farmers and an immediate cessation of violence on the farming
sector in the wake of the new political dispensation.
Farmers in our sector have been under serious threats and violence
since 2000 and the remaining farmers have retained only small portions
of their farms and have been very innovative and accommodating in order
to continue farming, reads part of the CFU report dated 27 March, 2009.
The report adds: The latest threats, violence, prosecutions and evictions have seriously destabilised the industry once again.
In the end, it is the country, which will once again suffer by having
to import the majority of its bulky strategic foods. Should there be
any farmers left on the land, it will be very difficult for them or
their banks to have the confidence for any sincere and substantial
investment to be considered again in agriculture in the coming
seasons.
The Prime Minister's Office last week ordered the Joint Monitoring and
Implementing Committee (JOMIC) – that oversees the implementation of
the September 15 power-sharing agreement that gave birth to the unity
government between Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe – to
investigate the authenticity of the alleged invasions and violence in
the farming sector.
The dossier of the CFU, which was last week circulated to government
officials, chronicles the alleged invasions or farm disruptions from
February 2009 and lists 189 farmers who face eviction from their
properties.
Gorden Moyo, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, said
Tsvangirai's priority was to address the issue of farm disruptions.
It has been his priority. The Prime Minister has been meeting
stakeholders in the sector with a view of making sure there are no
disruptions. He wants to make sure that the country moves forward,
said Moyo.
Moyo said Tsvangirai would use the ministerial retreat scheduled for Victoria Falls tomorrow to get to the bottom of the issue.
Lands and Resettlement Minister, Herbert Murerwa, told state media at the weekend there were no farm invasions.
But Moyo said the Prime Minister awaited a report from JOMIC to compare
with dossiers that he has received from affected farmers and other
stakeholders in the farming sector.
Mugabe's land reforms that he says were necessary to correct a colonial
land ownership system that reserved the best land for whites and
banished blacks to poor soils, are blamed for plunging Zimbabwe into
food shortages after Harare failed to support black villagers resettled
on former white farms with inputs to maintain production.
Critics say Mugabe's cronies – and not ordinary peasants – benefited
the most from farm seizures with some of them ending up with as many as
six farms each against the government's stated one-man-one-farm policy.