Zimbabwe -- Mugabe turns on white allies (Bredenkamp land to be confiscated)

Zimbabwe Independent ^ | May 10, 2002 | Vincent Kahiya and Augustine Mukaro

[Clive]

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has turned on his white supporters and approved the listing of their farms for acquisition as he enters the final phase of his contentious land reform exercise.

The Zimbabwe Independent this week learnt that long-time Mugabe ally John Bredenkamp's 1,300-hectare, $1,75 billion Thetford estate in the Mazowe valley 35km north of Harare has been listed for compulsory acquisition.

Farms owned by commercial farmers who last year thought they had brokered deals to save their properties from acquisition have also been listed.

Bredenkamp (62), the country's richest businessman with a fortune of 720 million pounds, is said to have close links with President Mugabe and Zanu PF.

He last year employed his political clout to convince politicians to accept the farmers' offer of an organised resettlement programme as an alternative to the fast-track scheme.

Bredenkamp and former Commercial Farmers Union president Nick Swanepoel last year emerged as central brokers in finding middle ground between the farmers and the government, by putting together the Zimbabwe Joint Resettlement Initiative.

Swanepoel's Avalon Farm in Mashonaland West has now been listed for compulsory acquisition. Pegging was underway at the farm this week.

Bredenkamp reportedly financed the drive by Swanepoel to persuade the farmers' union to accept the loss of nearly half its members' land. Swanepoel, for his part, laboured to convince white farmers to drop all legal cases objecting to Mugabe's fast track land seizures.

A spokesman for Bredenkamp yesterday confirmed that Thetford had been listed.

"The farm is currently listed," he said.

"There have been a couple of times when there have been misunderstandings with invaders but there is no-one on the farm at the moment," he said.

Bredenkamp bought the farm from the Gulliver family in 1999 after obtaining a certificate of no interest from the government. In September 2000 the farm received a Section 5 order which was withdrawn in October of that year after representations from Bredenkamp that the farm did not qualify for resettlement because it was highly industrialised and had large investments on it.

On March 22 the farm was again listed and since then war veterans have been disrupting operations at the farm, sponsoring industrial action last month.

Out of the 1,300 hectares, 40 hectares are arable and the rest is used as a game park. Bredenkamp is understood to be leasing a farm next to Thetford, growing flowers. The farm, which employs 500 people, also boasts a little suburb for the workers with tarred roads and running water.

There is a large volume dam and state-of-the-art drip irrigation facilities together with glass houses. The key landmark on the property is Bredenkamp's splendid residence, Thetford House, once a hotel with an ante-bellum portico, which enjoys a commanding view over the Mazowe Valley.

Bredenkamp is listed 33rd in the London Sunday Times' "Rich List" of Britain and Ireland's top 1,000 monied people.

[Clive]

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[ellery]

Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.

[chs68]

I may get flamed for this, but here goes.

Today's Washington ComPost had, on its front page, a story about how famine was occurring in Southern Africa.

Mugabe's policies will have the effect of making food even more scarce in Zimbabwe.

Where is Kofi Annan? Where is Jesse Jackson? Where is AL Sharpton?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

busy elsewhere, apparently.

[headsonpikes]

I can't answer all your questions but I've a hunch that Jivemaster Jesse and Co. will not be feeling any hunger pangs.

Their only conceivable act of solidarity would be in joining in the thieving of Mugabe and his cronies. It's all familiar turf to these pandering thugs.

[skeeter]

I may get flamed for this, but here goes.

You may get flamed, but not by me.

When SA abused it's black majority the west screamed its outrage. Now that the tables are turned we'll be sending 'em our deepest sympathies (and plenty of aid).

[Arkie2]

First, I can't imagine why any whites would be allies with Mugabe. Secondly, the farms of Zimbabwe used to produce enough to be net exporters of food. Now, Zimbabwe is in the beginnings of famine. We'll see a tearjerk account from CNN soon telling us the US needs to do something to relieve the famine in that country. There will, of course, be no historical context to let Americans know how the people of Zimbabwe arrived at that point.

[Clive]

"I may get flamed for this, but here goes."

Not likely.

Most of us following the zim threads have been saying much the same thing for the past 2 years.

[cajungirl]

This guy thought he could negotiate with Mugabe, well, hahahha. This entire situation is revolting and I know as I type that somehow, someway, it will be blamed on us and we will have to spend the damn money to feed this bunch and Mugabe will be dining at the white house. I just know it. And the scary thing is that it could happen here in other ways, more subtle, but just as revolutionary.

[Calvin Locke]

Hmmm. Jackson's trying to get more poke chops, from the beleaguered taxpayers of CA and Bill Gates.

Sharpton, maybe in MO, trying to shakedown a shopping mall in general, and the food court in particular.

Anan? Running around trying to keep terrorists supplied with Euros and sardines.

[Mr. Lucky]

Where is Kofi Annan? Where is Jesse Jackson? Where is Al Sharpton?

In their counting houses, counting their money.

[Billthedrill]

Marching toward end game now. Soon there'll be nothing left to steal.

[SauronOfMordor]

First, I can't imagine why any whites would be allies with Mugabe.

It's called "toss the others to the alligator in the hope that you will get eaten last"

[Arkie2]

Must be time for the last supper! Looks like they're on the menu now.

[Technocrat]

If this man doesn't use a small part of his 720 million pounds to hire 1,000 mercenaries and take over the country, turning every "war veteran" into a war casualty, then he deserves to lose his farm.

[Clive]

There are some very good merc outfits with African experience.

Sandline and Executive Outcomes come to mind, and there are probably a few former Selous Scouts around who might not be adverse to becoming the nucleous of a merc battalion.

But:

have you any thoughts on how the logistics would be handled?

The nearest seaport is in Mozambique and is 250 km from the Zim border and i know of no merc outfit that has a CV or LPH from which to launch a commando.

If Mozambique or South Africa would be willing to be a party to such an adventure, they would be better politically advised to do it themselves lest they be accused on cowtowing to a neocolonialist adventure.

Perhaps a trek across the Kalahari?

Sorry, but it is not going to happen.

The last time mercs were used was in Sierra Leone which is on the coast and also the mercs were hired by an African government. They were busily cutting a swath through the RUF insurgents when African and world opinion forced their removal

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cowardly whites who help Mugabe***A less abashed co-operator is John Bredenkamp, a former member of the Rhodesian rugby team and husband to ex-Miss Rhodesia, who was revealed last Sunday to be the 33rd richest man in Britain with a £720 million fortune and a home in Berkshire. Mr Bredenkamp is thought to be close to Mugabe, but especially to Emmerson Mnangagwa, the speaker of the Zimbabwean parliament and Mugabe's heir-apparent. Mr Bredenkamp's mining operations in the Congo benefit greatly from the incursion of Zimbabwean troops, which is a kind of joint-stock venture by Zanu-PF and its business friends. Has Bredenkamp ever raised his voice in protest at anything done by his chums? On the contrary. He is going round offering to buy up some of the most beautiful white farms, on the understanding that he can get the acquisition orders lifted. Then one might mention another Zanu-PF crony, called Billy Rautenbach, who is wanted by Interpol. And then there are the really big players, the ones who should have had the guts to speak out, but who have kept silent. Prime among these is Anglo-American, the giant South African conglomerate, which is now supposed to have a good liberal conscience.

Anglo has vast investments in Zimbabwe. It could easily turn the screws on Mugabe. But when some Zimbabwean human-rights activists went to call on Philip Baum, Anglo's head honcho, to ask for modest financial help, he told them not now, not ever. It is true that Anglo-American has not publicly declared in favour of Mugabe. But it has done nothing to remove him. It could have made it clear, for instance, that its workers would not be penalised for striking in protest at Mugabe's breaches of democracy. It did not.***

[Technocrat]

A fascinating technical problem. The engagement would have to take place in three phases - one long and two very short, lightning wide-area strikes.

The long phase would be infrastructure and force assessment, combined with gradual insertion of the mercs. The critical piece of this would be getting about twenty truckloads of ordinance and heavy equipment through the border, but appropriate bribes in Mozambique and a quick "action" at a Zim border crossing, which would be quickly forgotten in the current chaos, should do the trick. Keep your core assets around the heavy hardware, stored on three separate farms, and then use the intelligence you have gathered to plan phases two and three as soon as possible after you get the key hardware in.

In phase two, you must first disable all communications in the country and out of the country. Explosives teams should simultaneously destroy every major cell hub, TV tansmitter, and satellite uplink station of any significance. Jammers should be hooked to the local electrical grid and run continuously until the power goes out. I expect that in your intelligence gathering, you will have discovered that there are only about 5,000 key "war veterans" and about 200 core armed/trained spetznatz to assist the leadership, which might have as many as 20 key people. (Sure, there might be over 100,000 assets available to this control apparatus, but that's for phase three.) You would want to initiate the operation when those key assets were at minimum dispersal, to achieve maximum initial kill and confusion. I would probably use 20 10-man teams to clean out the biggest concentrations of WV in the countryside, giving each team a maximum of four hours to clean out as many targets as possible in their assigned regions. I would assign a ten man team to each of the 20 key people, and three to Mugabe (two to create maximum distraction and diversion). Assuming a 90% kill in phase two before dawn, you could then proceed to phase three.

In phase three, you set up your mobile radio and TV transmitters and tell the story your Psy-Ops people have determined will align the majority of the population with what has happened. Using the captured weapons of the war veterans, you turn over territory as quickly as possible to sympathizers, withdraw to Harare (excepting the twenty mobile teams which turn into quick response units), and defend the person you have chosen to lead the interim government. If the country is salvageable, things should get better from there.