Posted on 08/22/2002 10:49:57 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
BANKET, Zimbabwe - Though a court said white Zimbabwean farmer Vince Schultz can stay on his land, ruling party militants demanded Thursday he leave immediately and hand over the farm his family owned for nearly a century to a prominent party leader.
Five young militants in green uniforms were posted at the farm while Schultz was being harangued by militants inside the police station in Banket, a farming center 90 kilometers (55 miles) northwest of Harare.
Schultz said the militants had warned they would "bring back a battalion" to remove him if he defied them.
"We would be given safe passage as long as we start packing. I'm a quivering wreck. I want out before it kills me. I want to live the rest of my life in peace," said Schultz, 57.
Neighbors have urged Schultz to stay on, fearing militants will begin taking their farms if he relents.
It was a painful choice for Schultz and his wife, Monica, 58.
"If they say I married a chicken, I can put up with it. I have no intention of growing old by myself," she said.
The government's campaign to seize white-owned farms has added to more than two years of political unrest, during which about 186 mostly opposition supporters have been killed. Among the dead are 11 white farmers.
Since March 2000, the government has targeted 95 percent of white-owned land for confiscation and redistribution to blacks.
Critics say many prime farms have gone to politicians, military and police officers and government cronies and not landless blacks.
About 2,900 farmers were ordered to leave their land by Aug. 9. About 60 percent defied the order, and the government arrested about 200 of them over the weekend.
The farmers, many contesting the legality of their eviction orders, face up to two years in jail and a fine. Many were released on bail terms forbidding them from living on their land while awaiting trial over the next few weeks.
Schultz said he contested his eviction in the Harare High Court in June. The order was ruled invalid because the government did not comply with its own land seizure laws.
After being arrested Sunday and detained in overcrowded police cells for allegedly defying his eviction, he was released after producing the court ruling.
But that did not stop the militants from demanding his removal.
Bright Matonga, a prominent ruling party official and former state television executive who now heads a state transport company, said he had been allocated the 590 hectare (1,400 acre) farm.
The militants insisted the High Court ruling was an error. Joseph Chinotimba, a leader of veterans of the war that ended white rule here two decades ago, told Schultz and police officers Thursday he did not recognize the ruling.
There were no courts in the 1890s when white settlers stole African land, he said, echoing President Robert Mugabe's claim the land seizures were intended to correct colonial era imbalances in land ownership.
Schultz, a former miner, bought the farm at independence in 1980 from his wife's parents, whose family settled there in 1919.
After two years of threats from militants and settlers, he was forced to stop growing tobacco, wheat and beans but was allowed to grow roses for export this year.
Schultz said he had noted government promises that whites who only owned one small farmer would not be stripped of their land. He also offered to subdivide sections of the land to provide plots for black settlers.
"We thought we were home and dry. We put everything we had into the farm. It was going to be our pension. We made no other provisions. We have nowhere to go," he said.
The land seizures and a drought are causing widespread food shortages that relief groups say threaten half of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people.
Before "fast track" seizures began two years ago 4,500 whites owned a third of Zimbabwe's farmland and 7 million blacks lived on the rest. An estimated 350,000 black farm workers and their families live on the white-owned land.
South African Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi said Thursday he did not know of any white Zimbabwean farmers seeking permission to move to South Africa.
"I am not aware there is a big deluge of people inundating our country as a result of the Zimbabwe debacle," he said.
Schultz said the militants worked "to soften us up and make sure were go." Police once advised him to go into hiding for his own safety.
"Twenty nine months of this is enough," he said.
It's no better there.
Land Restoration in 3 Years *** Cape Town - President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday the country's programme to restore land to thousands of families evicted under apartheid would be completed in three years. "We intend, within the next three years, to complete the land restitution process, which is a critical part of our land reform programme," Mbeki said in the text of a speech prepared for delivery to parliament. Last week the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights said 36 354 land claims were projected to be settled in the three years to the end of March this year. Some 69 000 claims have been lodged with the commission. ***
Short Drive, Long Walk to Wealth in S.Africa (when communism triumphs)
I would burn every building, wreck every piece of equipment, pollute all my irrigation wells, spread nails over all access roads, destroy any planted crops (like wheat), broadcast chemical limiting crop choices for the following year, plow furrows across gravity irrigated fields, and if still p!ssed enough see how many grassland fires I could start before they arrest me, or I left the country.
They then could have the land... with my blessings
*** After being arrested Sunday and detained in overcrowded police cells for allegedly defying his eviction, he was released after producing the court ruling. But that did not stop the militants from demanding his removal. Bright Matonga, a prominent ruling party official and former state television executive who now heads a state transport company, said he had been allocated the 590 hectare (1,400 acre) farm.
.... Schultz, a former miner, bought the farm at independence in 1980 from his wife's parents, whose family settled there in 1919. ***
Mr Mushambati had often quarrelled with Mr Martin over his wages, and was elated when he attended a rally before the 2000 parliamentary elections at which Mr Mugabe promised "land to my people". The labourer applied for a piece of land, but officials asked him for a Zanu-PF card, demonstrating membership of Mr Mugabe's ruling party, to attach to the application. He didn't have one. "They made it clear that no one would get land without a party card," he said. Mr Mushambati returned to work for Mr Martin, who paid him 4,000 Zimbabwe dollars (£50) a month. His wife also worked for the white farmer and they received free produce from Mr Martin, and sent their children to a school he built for his employees. "I used to think the boss was a devil, but with hindsight he was not. He was my saviour," said Mr Mushambati.
This is the future now facing Mr Mushambati - a plight often forgotten in the international attention devoted to the white farmers. Mr Martin told his workers last week he had given up the fight for his land and was emigrating to New Zealand. Mr Mushambati asked his employer to take him too. "Unfortunately, the boss said he will not own a farm any more. He is going to work in a hotel in New Zealand," said his employee of 20 years. He broke down. "I am finished. I have no future."***
I don't think they have to do any of that. The people getting these farms don't know how to farm. These farms will be stripped of their equipment to sell as salvage and the fields will go back to bush within 2 years.
Zimbabwe will be an object lesson on what happens when a country persecutes its only productive citizens. Unfortunately many will starve during the course of this lesson.
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