Sorry Mr Mugabe, but we won't leave*** "Maybe we're being overly optimistic, but there's no way I would think of leaving my farm whilst there's seed in the ground." Senior officials would not comment, leaving Mr Mugabe to reveal how he plans to eject the farmers in his speech to the nation this weekend. But the state media seem to be primed for confrontation. The Herald accused "British farmers" of sabotaging government efforts to find an amicable end to the stand-off. "Zimbabwe now needs people who want to see a success of this country and not saboteurs who will gloat on the failures of Africa," its editorial said.
Officials accuse white farmers of wrecking their farms to prevent them being taken over successfully by landless peasants, thereby contributing to the severe food shortage. The farmers say they are struggling to protect their property from looters. The 2,900 due for eviction have been banned from farming for the past 45 days. "There are squatters burning down everything, all the farm buildings," said Mrs Van Rensburg, seven of whose eight farms have been overrun. "It's not intimidation exactly, it's just that they're doing everything they can to make us give up hope." Nearly all farmers have begun legal challenges to their eviction orders.***
Mugabe should be tried. Posthumously.