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Posted on 09/09/2001 4:00:02 AM PDT by Clive

author/source:Zimbabwe Standard
published:Sun 9-Sep-2001
posted on this site:Sun 9-Sep-2001

Article Type : News

"If you get hold of MDC supporters, beat them until they are dead. Burn their farms and their workers' houses, then run away fast and we will then blame the burning of the workers' houses on the whites. Report to the police, because they are ours"

Staff Writer

Chinhoyi member of parliament, Phillip Chiyangwa, instructed his supporters in Chinhoyi to ransack and burn commercial farmers' properties during the Mashonaland West mayhem, a recent clip from a television footage reveals. Chiyangwa was filmed by the BBC television channel (sic), Channel 4, telling his supporters to burn the properties and run away so that the ruling party could blame the commercial farmers for burning their own properties. In an interview with Channel 4 in Chinhoyi which was screened last Sunday at 7pm British time, Chiyangwa accused white farmers of perpetrating violence on the farms and of being behind the burning of farm workers' houses.

After the interview, Chiyangwa met a group of Zanu PF youths, and started addressing them in Shona, without knowing that the reporter was still recording him. Chiyangwa was recorded addressing the youths saying: "Mukabata veMDC rovayi kudzamara vafa. Mapurazi nedzimba dzevashandi pisai mokasika kutiza tozoti varungu vapisa misha yeva-sevenzi vavo. Mhanyai munomhangara kumapurisa nekuti ndevedu."(If you get hold of MDC supporters, beat them until they are dead. Burn their farms and their workers' houses, then run away fast and we will then blame the burning of the workers' houses on the whites. Report to the police, because they are ours.)

Contacted for comment on Thursday, Chiyangwa denied inciting any violence. "You are actually the third person to tell me that. I wouldn't exactly remember everything I said, but I never said burn farm workers' houses. When my youths arrived we started chanting slogans and I addressed them briefly. I do not know where this is coming from. I would want to see that tape. In fact someone has promised me the tape." Durani Rapozo, one Zimbabwean living in Britain who watched the interview, told The Standard last week that most Zimbabweans staying in Britain were shocked to hear an MP encourage violence in Zimbabwe. "Phillip Chiyangwa showed UK residents the true picture of Mugabe's regime. He should step down because he is not a role model for our children in Zimbabwe. I now agree that the violence is being perpetrated by Mugabe as a matter of survival," he said.

Violence erupted in Chinhoyi last month after 22 farmers from Chinhoyi were picked up by the police for allegedly attacking farm settlers. They have since been granted bail of $100,000 each. There were reports of massive looting of cattle, farm implements and other valuables by so-called settlers taking advantage of the fleeing farmers. Dozens of commercial farmers from Chinhoyi, Bindura, Doma and Mhangura had evacuated with their families by air to escape the new terror blitz by war veterans. A report by the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) on 11 August said 60 of the 357 farms in Chinhoyi and Doma had been completely evacuated, with nine farms completely ransacked, and property worth $167 million destroyed.

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