Posted on 08/07/2002 4:50:55 PM PDT by Clive
Land seizures dealt blow
Staff Reporters 8/8/02 8:53:17 AM (GMT +2)
THE High Court in Harare yesterday dealt a heavy blow to the government’s plans to evict all white farmers by tomorrow when it ruled that a farm that is mortgaged or bonded cannot be acquired for resettlement if the state has not properly informed the financial institution involved.
The ruling by High Court judge Justice Charles Hungwe threw a temporary lifeline to hundreds of farmers who have been ordered out of their properties by the state and most of whom face financial ruin.
Nearly 3 000 farmers have to quit their properties by tomorrow, although most of them have not yet been compensated by the government even for improvements made on their farms.
Under the govern-ment’s land reforms, the state only compensates the farmers for the land improvements such as houses, water reservoirs and other equipment and not for the land itself.
Meanwhile the besieged farmers yesterday remained defiant in the face of tough state legislation dispossessing them of their land, vowing to challenge the legislation which also compels them to pay workers laid off before the government compensates them for land that it is seizing.
The farmers, who met in Harare yesterday for what could be the last Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) annual congress, criticised the government for what they said was its unfair treatment.
"The farmers must challenge the evictions in court and I believe we will win this case," former Rhodesian premier Ian Smith told the Financial Gazette. He was one of the delegates to the CFU congress.
One of their main complaints was the insistence by the Zimbabwean authorities that workers on farms acquired for acquisition must be paid before the farm owners are compensated for improvements made on the land.
"It is no good to say that just because past (legal) challenges did not succeed, then we should not challenge any future piece of legislation that directly affects us," one of the farmers, Mike Crawford, said in response to an address by the Agricultural Labour Bureau (ALB).
ALB chairman Nigel Juul had earlier told the congress that his organisation, which represents employers in the agricultural sector, had resolved not to challenge Statutory Instrument 6 of 2002 which compels farmers to pay workers before they vacate the farms or have the money deducted from the compensation paid by the state.
But some farmers charged that officials from the Ministry of Labour and the trade union for farm workers were insisting that the workers’ redundancy packages must be paid before the farm owners vacate their properties.
"It is the view of this congress that the legislation is grossly unfair to farmers," David Hasluck, the executive director of the CFU, said.
In his landmark ruling yesterday, Justice Hungwe said the state could not confiscate Tengwe Estates’ farm because, although it had done everything by the book, it had failed to inform the National Merchant Bank, which has a mortgage registered over the property.
Hundreds of heavily indebted white farmers stand to lose their properties this week after the expiry of the government’s 90-day grace period for them to vacate the farms.
Many of the farmers have borrowed heavily over the years to finance production, implements and improvements on the farms and now face bankruptcy.
Zimbabwean banks and other financial institutions that support commercial agriculture also stand to lose nearly $12 billion because the chaotic land reforms will bankrupt many farmers.
Justice Hungwe’s ruling is therefore expected to open floodgates for other farmers whose properties were acquired by the government but are also pledged as collateral for loans from banks.
CFU’s Hasluck however said it was likely that the government would appeal against yesterday’s ruling.
"This judgment will however not save farmers who had Section 5 and Section 8 orders properly served on them and their properties are not bonded, leased or pledged in some other way to third parties," he said.
The CFU, its future uncertain as the government’s deadline for farmers to quit the land neared, also said it was making contingency plans to set aside $188 million to meet possible job losses at its secretariat.
The organisation, which earlier this year announced it was streamlining operations, yesterday acknowledged its future was unclear, noting that there was likely to be a material downturn in organised commercial agriculture and a significant decline in the number of its members as President Robert Mugabe presses on with his land reforms.
"In the event of the union being unable to continue as a going concern, adjustments would have to be made to re-classify non- current assets and to introduce any additional liabilities that may arise," the CFU said in a report tabled at its 59th annual congress held in Harare.
"The latter may include the need to make provision for staff redundancy payments estimated to be $188 million and to bring to account any portion thereof that may be recoverable from producers’ associations," the report said.
The farmers’ body is run by a secretariat headed by Hasluck and comprises hundreds of workers scattered across Zimbabwe.
Its future has been in jeopardy since Mugabe launched an onslaught on white farmers in 2000 to retaliate for what he said was the CFU’s support for the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
The CFU congress was held against the backdrop of yesterday’s High Court ruling in favour of Hurungwe farmer Andrew Kockett, who was challenging Lands Minister Joseph Made and police commissioner Augustine Chihuri over an order to evict him from Tengwe Estates’ Fumeira Estate.
Justice Hungwe ruled invalid an order by Made for Kockett to leave his farm by August 10.
The government will most likely simply disregard the order and the judge has just become a candidate for early retirement.
The bank will still lose its security, the farmer will still lose his land.
As the mortgage security sounds in rem and the debt sounds in personam, the farmer will still owe the bank but as he is being driven out of the country, he will not be able to pay the debt and will eventually clear it by filing in bankruptcy wherever and whenever the bank catches up with him.
Africa Wins Again.
What's this guy smoking?
the enemy is corruption; from clinton and rubin to mugabe and mao, the people in charge misled their way to power and profit.
oh, I'm sorry, that was the crack pipe talking again.
It appears that Comrade Bob is determined to follow the path of Pol Pot and institute Year Zero.
I think it's the height of hypocrisy that every Tom, Dick and Dirty Harry pretty boys who's ever used a gun to save his skin in some flick isn't out there.
Thank goodness you guys are around to put the 2nd Amendment in "sportshooting". =) Though it's true one has to wonder if Zimbabwe's presence isn't an ironic reminder in itself that there's more to guns than clay targets and bullseyes. Most bizarre bit of sponsorship I think I've ever seen.
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