: Tafataona Mahoso invades Mutare farm 

Tafataona Mahoso invades Mutare farm
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Zimbabwean.co.uk on 28 November, 2009 01:52:00
 
He has given the white owner only 48 hours to vacate the property that had been
his home for years.
Top military commanders, officials and supporters of Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party
have stepped farm seizures despite formation of a unity government nine months
ago and a ruling by the SADC Tribunal outlawing land grabs.
A devastated Charles Bezuidenhout told of how Mahoso – who ordered the closure
of independent newspapers including the Daily News during his time as chairman
of the now defunct Media and Information Commission – last month stormed his
Welverdien Farm accompanied by an army of AREX officers and announced he was
taking over the property.
Offer letter
Bezuidenhout initially resisted Mahoso’s attempts to evict him apparently
because the former journalism lecturer did not produce an offer letter from he
government showing that he had been allocated the farm.
Mahoso went away only to return this month with an offer letter for the
200-hactare farm and told Bezuidenhout to leave immediately.  When Bezuidenhout
attempted to seek help from local police he was simply told that if Mahoso –
earmarked by Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party to head the Broadcasting Authority of
Zimbabwe – wanted the property then the farmer had to make way.
"Its the law of the jungle really. Mahoso and Agritex people produced an offer
letter and just took the farm just like that," said Bezuidenhout.
Earlier Bezuidenhout had accepted a government offer to subdivide his farm
between himself and state-appointed "settlers", an arrangement government
officials assured the farmer would allow him to continue farming. But that was
until Mahoso turned up demanding the piece that Bezuidenhout had kept after
subdivision of his farm.
Mahoso did not answer his phone when The Zimbabwean on Sunday tried to contact
him last Friday for comment on the matter.
Chegutu farms
Meanwhile farm invaders stepped up attacks on four commercial farms near Chegutu
last week, SW Radio Africa reported. In a interview with the radio farmer Ben
Freeth described the situation in the farming community in Chegutu as “very
tense” as mobs of Zanu (PF) supporters acted with total impunity on the four
different properties.
Freeth explained how Tom and Sue Beattie from Umvovo farm have been given five
days to leave their property, after months of harassment and intimidation by
land invaders came to a head last Thursday morning.
The invaders, led by a man known only as Hanyani, had recently intensified their
efforts to drive the family and their workers off the farm, including breaking
into the Beatties’ home in August and assaulting Sue.
Last Thursday morning Hanyani, accompanied by Lands Officer Clever Kunonga,
arrived on the property demanding that the family leave. By late afternoon the
situation had turned threatening, with multiple fires being lit around the
family’s thatched homestead.
Umvovo farm used to be one of the area’s most productive pieces of land,
growing close to 3 000 hectares of crops when the rule of law in Zimbabwe once
prevailed.
But production on the farm has been completely halted, with the land invaders
physically stopping any planting, as well as chasing away the farm’s
workforce.
Freeth explained that, with this year’s national crop at the lowest ever level
of approximately 20 000 tons, “the Beattie family alone could have increased
the national crop by 20 percent if law and order were allowed to prevail in
Zimbabwe”.
The Beatties used to employ well over a thousand workers, but this year the
workers are mostly unemployed, leaving even more Zimbabwean families destitute.
The land invaders have since taken over the farm workers’ homes as well as
other cottages on the property, holding late night parties as part of their
efforts to drive the Beatties off the farm.
Cronies benefited
It is understood that the invasion is being carried out on behalf of Senate
President Edna Madzongwe, who also led the lawless attacks and eventual takeover
of Stockdale Citrus Farm.
At the same time, Lands Officer Kunonga’s brother, Abel, earlier this year led
the invasion on the Keevil family’s Dodhill farm, an attack that eventually
saw the Keevils forcibly evicted.
Chegutu police have refused to assist the Beatties or any other farmers in the
area who have faced similar attacks, leaving the farmers completely helpless
against the unlawful ‘jambanjas’.
Mugabe has defended his government's chaotic and often violent farm
redistribution exercise that saw the majority of the about 4 000 white
commercial farmers expelled from the land, saying it was necessary to ensure
blacks also had access to arable land that they were denied by previous
white-led governments.
But critics blame the land reforms for plunging Zimbabwe into food shortages
after Mugabe failed to support the black villagers resettled on former white
farms to maintain production.
In addition, the critics say Mugabe’s cronies – and not ordinary peasants
– benefited the most from the farm seizures with some of them ending up with
as many as six farms each against the government’s stated one-man-one-farm
policy.