Mahoso invades Mutare farm

Top military commanders, officials and supporters of Mugabes Zanu (PF) party have stepped farm seizures despite formation of a unity government nine months ago and a ruling by the SADC Tribunal outlawing land grabs.

A devastated Charles Bezuidenhout told of how Mahoso who ordered the closure of independent newspapers including the Daily News during his time as chairman of the now defunct Media and Information Commission last month stormed his Welverdien Farm accompanied by an army of AREX officers and announced he was taking over the property.

Offer letter

Bezuidenhout initially resisted Mahosos attempts to evict him apparently because the former journalism lecturer did not produce an offer letter from he government showing that he had been allocated the farm.

Mahoso went away only to return this month with an offer letter for the 200-hactare farm and told Bezuidenhout to leave immediately.

When Bezuidenhout attempted to seek help from local police he was simply told that if Mahoso earmarked by Mugabes Zanu (PF) party to head the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe wanted the property then the farmer had to make way.

“Its the law of the jungle really. Mahoso and Agritex people produced an offer letter and just took the farm just like that,” said Bezuidenhout.

Earlier Bezuidenhout had accepted a government offer to subdivide his farm between himself and state-appointed “settlers”, an arrangement government officials assured the farmer would allow him to continue farming. But that was until Mahoso turned up demanding the piece that Bezuidenhout had kept after subdivision of his farm.

Mahoso did not answer his phone when The Zimbabwean on Sunday tried to contact him last Friday for comment on the matter.

Chegutu farms

Meanwhile farm invaders stepped up attacks on four commercial farms near Chegutu last week, SW Radio Africa reported.

In a interview with the radio farmer Ben Freeth described the situation in the farming community in Chegutu as very tense as mobs of Zanu (PF) supporters acted with total impunity on the four different properties.

Freeth explained how Tom and Sue Beattie from Umvovo farm have been given five days to leave their property, after months of harassment and intimidation by land invaders came to a head last Thursday morning.

The invaders, led by a man known only as Hanyani, had recently intensified their efforts to drive the family and their workers off the farm, including breaking into the Beatties home in August and assaulting Sue.

Last Thursday morning Hanyani, accompanied by Lands Officer Clever Kunonga, arrived on the property demanding that the family leave. By late afternoon the situation had turned threatening, with multiple fires being lit around the familys thatched homestead.

Umvovo farm used to be one of the areas most productive pieces of land, growing close to 3 000 hectares of crops when the rule of law in Zimbabwe once prevailed.

But production on the farm has been completely halted, with the land invaders physically stopping any planting, as well as chasing away the farms workforce.

Freeth explained that, with this years national crop at the lowest ever level of approximately 20 000 tons, the Beattie family alone could have increased the national crop by 20 percent if law and order were allowed to prevail in Zimbabwe.

The Beatties used to employ well over a thousand workers, but this year the workers are mostly unemployed, leaving even more Zimbabwean families destitute. The land invaders have since taken over the farm workers homes as well as other cottages on the property, holding late night parties as part of their efforts to drive the Beatties off the farm.

Cronies benefited

It is understood that the invasion is being carried out on behalf of Senate President Edna Madzongwe, who also led the lawless attacks and eventual takeover of Stockdale Citrus Farm.

At the same time, Lands Officer Kunongas brother, Abel, earlier this year led the invasion on the Keevil familys Dodhill farm, an attack that eventually saw the Keevils forcibly evicted.

Chegutu police have refused to assist the Beatties or any other farmers in the area who have faced similar attacks, leaving the farmers completely helpless against the unlawful jambanjas.

Mugabe has defended his government’s chaotic and often violent farm redistribution exercise that saw the majority of the about 4 000 white commercial farmers expelled from the land, saying it was necessary to ensure blacks also had access to arable land that they were denied by previous white-led governments.

But critics blame the land reforms for plunging Zimbabwe into food shortages after Mugabe failed to support the black villagers resettled on former white farms to maintain production.

In addition, the critics say Mugabes cronies and not ordinary peasants benefited the most from the farm seizures with some of them ending up with as many as six farms each against the governments stated one-man-one-farm policy.