Farm invaders attack Mugabe

Five surviving members of the first farm invasion team in Masvingo, Felix Zivanai, Peter Saharo, Elton Mushunde, Enerst Matambo and Kid Muzenda are living in poverty and have accused their party Zanu (PF) and the president of ditching them.

Besides a small piece of land that they grabbed under the A1 resettlement model, the five have nothing to show for their commitment to their party. They invaded Yotham farm about 50 km east of Masvingo in February 2000.

Zivanai said even the much-touted farm mechanisation programme did not benefit them, despite the fact that they were the pioneers of farm invasions. “We just heard that some people were given tractors, scotch carts, wheel barrows and harrows – but we did not get anything. When our leaders come here they promise to solve our problems but nothing has been done,” said the visibly angry Zivanai.

“We think these implements were looted by senior officials at the expense of the people.”

Mugabe’s farm mechanisation programme was bankrolled by Reserve Bank Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono .

“We want an audit of all these farming implements because we feel Gono and some of our leaders just played games to benefit themselves,” said Zivanai. “I need a tractor and so do my colleagues.”

He explained how they became the first farm invaders: “When the NO vote carried the end of the day we as war veterans felt that our party had lost so we asked ourselves : What do we do in order for us to benefit from the government given the fact that people have voted no in the referendum? We held a meeting at the chiefs hall in Masvingo where we agreed to start farm invasions. Some of the war veterans refused because they argued that the white farmers were armed, but we felt it was time for us to take the land.

“We targeted Yotham farm because the owner, Dick Ren, had already left the country. His farm was used as training ground for Rhodesian soldiers and torture centres for villagers who supported the liberation struggle.

“Soon after taking over that farm we started to dish out pieces of land to landless people until the government chipped in and blessed our idea. But our lives are deteriorating in terms of living standards.”