Posted on 07/26/2002 4:53:47 AM PDT by Clive
NEARLY 200 workers at Leopardvlei Farm near Glendale were left stranded yesterday after Reward Simbarashe Marufu, President Mugabe’s brother-in-law, allegedly burnt down over 80 of their huts and belongings before evicting them.
Marufu, a former Zimbabwean envoy to Canada, grabbed the farm, including the farm equipment worth over $200 million before the March presidential election, from Bob Duncan who has left the farm.
Yesterday, the displaced farm workers stood by the roadside near the farm, with their meagre belongings around them, contemplating their future.
Some of the huts were still smouldering.
Marufu was seen turning into a field on the farm, driving from Bindura in a white Mazda B1600.
Ruka Salimu, 65, one of the evicted farm workers, said Marufu should have allowed them to remain on the farm even if he declined their services because he was a leader who should be sympathetic to destitute people.
“It has been hell since Marufu came,” Salimu said. “We have lived under constant harassment, abuse and threats.”
Caleb Chikwamba, 36, who has worked on the farm for six years, said around 4pm on Tuesday, Marufu came to their compound and ordered them out immediately because he had no work for them.
“Marufu first told us that everyone was fired,” Chikwamba said. “We thought it was a joke. He came back later with several of his guards and known Zanu PF youths and set ablaze our huts.”
Chikwamba said Marufu made it clear he was the new farm owner and no longer needed their services.
He said property worth thousands of dollars was destroyed during the inferno that engulfed the compound, razing most of the huts to the ground.
Chikwamba said elderly women and children were indiscriminately assaulted and tortured.
He said after their huts were burnt down, the youths and guards ordered everyone on the farm to immediately seek alternative accommodation or risk intensive beatings and torture.
“Most of us, including our wives and children, slept in the bushes nearby for two days, afraid we would be attacked as threatened,” Chikwamba said.
The workers alleged that Marufu was armed and had on several occasions threatened them with his gun if they remained on his farm.
In 1998, Marufu was hauled before the Godfrey Chidyausiku Commission to answer charges he had defrauded the War Victims’ Compensation Fund of over $800 000, the largest individual claim.
A police inspector, who identified himself only as Sande, confirmed the incident but would not comment, citing orders.
In a series of extraordinary encounters with the diamond dealer last year, senior Zimbabwean officials, including the President's nephew, Innocent Mugabe, offered for sale gems looted by Zimbabwean forces fighting in the Congolese civil war. The allegations by John Marsischky, who runs the American-based diamond firm Flashes of Color, cast a spotlight for the first time on the vast smuggling network of blood diamonds at the highest levels of Mugabe's regime. It portrays a government engaged in plundering a neighbouring country and a shady world of contraband and backhanders involving some of the most valuable gems in the world.***
Those newly eveicted, seeing their homes possessions and jobs going up in flames as they are beaten and forced into the bush homeless and penniless....it seems to me that a simple plan to fly in Enfields and AK-47s in Cessnas would bear immediate fruit.
Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - yorktown
All they need is guns!
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