Mugabes 4000ha farming empire revealed

The discovery of the holding worth about R22 million is the first evidence of how Mugabe personally benefited from the land seizures programme which started in 2000, during which more than 4 000 commercial farmers had their land grabbed. The land-grab destroyed Zimbabwe’s agriculture industry, the bedrock of the economy. Mugabe’s private farming empire is an obstacle to resurrecting commercial agriculture, according to experts quoted in the Independent on Sunday last weekend. They say an audit of land ownership as part of essential structural reforms would expose the president’s controversial control of the 4 050ha. The Independent Foreign Service located Mugabe’s private empire in the Darwendale area, near his tribal home, 48km west of the capital Harare. It is made up of six farms, including five properties seized from white owners over the years.

(Pictured: Peter Ethridge whose farm was invaded by Senator Edna Madzongwe opens the gate to his farm Stockdale farm in Chegutu) The 445ha Highfield farm near Mugabe’s home was bought commercially but five others were seized from their white owners. Three were owned by the Skea family – Cressydale, John O’Groat and Tankatara – who were forced out between 2000 and 2002 and have emigrated to Australia and New Zealand. The owners of the other two farms – Clifford and Cressydale were forced out in 2006 and 2008. Leo Skea, who used to grow proteas and other crops at John O’Groat, said: “We arrived back from Europe in July 2002 to a farm overrun with war vets and we made the decision to leave as we could feel ourselves getting back on the treadmill to who knows where.” Staff told the Independent that the five seized farms were initially run by the government’s Agricultural Rural Development Authority (Arda), which poured in millions of rands of Zimbabwean taxpayers’ money.

One long-serving worker recalled the frightening days when the farm invasions began in 2000. “First, the president bought Highfield. Hordes of people were brought to another farm in open trucks and gathered all the workers, and told them it now belongs to Arda,” he said. “Those who didn’t want to work for Arda were beaten up and told to leave the farm, and the invaders started staying in the houses.” Workers said Arda’s role was reduced in 2006 and a small group of “war veterans” occupying some of the land were also asked to leave to make way for Mugabe. One of the war veterans said Mugabe had made sacrifices for the freedom of Zimbabwe, including a decade in jail, and deserved to have the land which now makes up his estate. He said: “He is our hero.” Independent reporters visited the estate a number of times and said it was clear that the six farms were now being operated as a single business. Workers said they were now employed either by Mugabe or “Gushungo”, his family name, which is also the new name for the estate. They said he visited every three months or so, grew maize, rice, wheat, different sorghums, and sweet potatoes, and had a herd of Brahman cattle, goats, plus five camels.

(Pictured: MDC deputy minister for agriculture, Roy Bennett, who Mugabe continues to refuse to swear into cabinet “because he is white”) The appropriation of the farms by the president has not been officially confirmed. Earlier this year, the state-controlled Herald newspaper referred to Highfield as “the president’s farm” but there was no mention of the neighbouring land. The total estate now stretches over 4 050ha on the edge of Lake Robertson, including homesteads, managers’ cottages, workers’ houses, huge barns, sheds, workshops and 19 recently-acquired portable rotating irrigation systems known as centre pivots which cost about R940 000 each. A crucial clause in the political agreement signed between Zanu (PF) and Tsvangirai’s MDC party a year ago demands a land audit as a preliminary step to rebuilding agriculture. Brian Raftopoulous, a top Zimbabwean political scientist, said: “This is part of Zanu (PF)’s rapid accumulation of property since 2000 and explains in particular the deep relationship between Zanu (PF)’s unwillingness to accede to a free and fair election, and its increasing control of land. “A land audit would expose the deep levels of corruption of public resources over the last decade, a very real blockage in the political agreement,” said Raftopoulous.

Mugabe even argued as part of his justification for seizing farms that no one should have more than one farm. Vincent Gwaradzimba, the MDC secretary for lands and agriculture, said: “A land audit would expose that he (Mugabe) has multiple farms, so one way to avoid a land audit is to make sure there is no full implementation of the political agreement. Independent Foreign Service has asked Mugabe whether he has received title deeds for the five seized farms but has not received a response. No response has been received to requests for comment from Mugabe’s office, his spokesman, the agriculture ministry, or the central bank. Independent Foreign Service This article was originally published in the Sunday Independent on September 27, 2009.