Posted on 07/29/2006 4:27:32 PM PDT by Clive
MASVINGO - War veterans at Chikore Farm in the southern town of Masvingo are demanding Z$142 billion in compensation from a Zimbabwe government minister whom they accuse of harvesting where he did not sow.
The war veterans are accusing Stan Mudenge, who is the Minister of Higher Education, of forcibly harvesting and selling their tomato crop at the farm which has been the subject of a bitter ownership dispute between the former liberation war fighters and the minister.
In a letter of demand to Mudenge, a copy of which was seen by ZimOnline yesterday, the war veterans say they will institute legal action against Mudenge if he fails to pay within seven days.
"We are demanding payment of $142 billion from you being payment for tomatoes which you took from Chikore farm. We worked very hard to grow those crops but to our surprise you the minister only came to harvest.
"We are therefore giving you seven days to settle the debt failure which legal action will be taken against you," read part of the letter.
Mudenge yesterday said he had not received the letter of demand from the war veterans but added that he was prepared to meet the former fighters in court over the disputed property.
"I do not own any other farm. Chikore Farm belongs to me and anyone intending to take it from me is like a person intending to take away my wife," said the minister.
The war veterans invaded Chikore Farm in 2003 in what was a fresh round of farm invasions against the few remaining white farmers following the violent farm seizures that began in 2000.
Last year, State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa who is also in charge of land reform, ordered the former fighters to move out of the property to pave way for Mudenge. The war veterans are however resisting the move demanding compensation for their loss.
Several government ministers and influential members of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF party have been accused in the past of using their powerful positions to push out black villagers who occupied farms after the ouster white farmers after 2000.
The government ministers have in most cases forcibly taken and sold unharvested crops on the properties without compensating the previous owners. - ZimOnline
They were ostensibly veterans of the Second Chimurenga which resulted in Mugabe coming into power. The Second Chimurenga was over two decades previous to the farm invasions but the "veterans" who invaded the farms were mainly in their late teens and early twenties.
The farm invasions were later described as the Third Chimurenga or "hondo yeminda" (war for the land) and the young thugs were then able to characterize themselves as "veterans" of this "war".
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That is so 5 minutes ago!
This would be funny if it weren't so sad.
1 US Dollar = 100,828 Zimbabwe Dollar
You will have to do the arithmetic yourself. I get lost in all the zeros.
In 2000, when the farm invasions began, the Zim dollar was trading at a fairly stable Z$55 to US$1
Of course, with inflation in quadruple digits, any exchange rate becomes meaningless. Zimbabwe is rapidly degenerating into a barter economy.
About three years ago I was waiting for the XYL in a shopping mall in Toronto and out of boredom I went to the Thomas Cook foreign exchange counter and asked for the exchange rate for Zimbabwe dollars to Canadian dollars. My inquiry was met with huge hilarity.
So far as the Thomas Cook company is concerned there is no longer any such thing as a Zimbabwe dollar.
This is what the white liberalsn did to Africa.
One of the wealthiest nations in terms of agriculture is now totally bust. Only took less than a decade.
They'll get as much as the Whites who were driven off the farm.
Leftwing socialism could only work if it kills off 99.9% of the population and even then its a "maybe"
The Soviets used to boast about their harvests too while they were secretly buying shiploads from us
142 billion divided by 100,828 = $1,408,338 (USD)... shows you just how much a billion of anything really is!!
thanks for the link...
So they stole the land, but unlike a lot of farms, it sounds like they actually planted somehting...and so now a corrupt government is stealing their hard work
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