A video clip of a senior Zanu-PF official’s son arriving to
evict the owner of a well-known farm has sent jitters through Zimbabwe.
Remembrance Gwaradzimba, son of provincial minister Ellen
Gwaradzimba, went to FarFell Coffee Estate accompanied by police and armed with
an eviction notice issued by the ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate
and Rural Settlements.
The farm is run by retired Swiss banker Richard Le Vieux, a
reputable farmer who has been in the business of exporting coffee, avocados and
macadamia nuts for the past 30 years.
Mbudzana ("Junior") demanded to be shown “his
land” by the farmer.
“I have got this offer letter. Do you respect it? It has
229 hectares. Show me the 229 hectares, show me my land according to the offer
letter. How is that difficult? I will stay wherever I want to stay in my piece
of land,” said Mbudzana in a dialogue that was recorded on video, with Le Vieux
who kept asking questions.
The 229 hectares that Mbudzana wants has an almost ripe
crop on it. If he takes over the land he is expected to simply harvest. His
“offer letter” to take over the farm was issued on January 10. FarFell Coffee
Estate is contesting the matter in the high court.
Le Vieux said he challenged the legality of the notice but
declined to comment about the matter as it is sub judice. “My lawyers are
handling the matter so there is nothing to talk about. All I want is for my
world-renowned coffee brand to be saved,” he said.
The “eviction team” went to the farm last Sunday
accompanied by a police chief from Chipinge: inspector Dohwa. The policeman
said the farmer’s refusal to let them onto the land as it was a resting day was
disrespectful.
“I actually thought you would respect us as police
officers, and when we come, we normally don’t just come to have fun,” said
Dohwa.
Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Settlements
minister Perence Shiri said in 2018 that farm invasions were a thing of the
past and “lawlessness and anarchy” would not be allowed to prevail.
At the time government had resolved to compensate farmers
that were displaced during a land reform program that saw at least 4,000 white
commercial farmers displaced. Some ended up in countries such as Zambia and
Nigeria, strengthening the backbone of those countries' agrarian sectors.
At the height of the farm invasions, government took some
farms that were initially protected by Bilateral Investment Promotion and
Protection Agreements (Bippas) between governments. Government records show
that 197 out of 258 farms, measuring 977,000 hectares, under Bippa were
acquired for resettlement.
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Countries such as South Africa, Denmark, Germany, Belgium,
the Netherlands, Italy, Malaysia and Switzerland have land under Bippas.
Farm evictions dented Harare’s international image for investors.
Finance minister professor Mthuli Ncube said recently that government was
finalising compensation packages for white former land owners.
“We have made progress in compensating the white farmers
and the farmers themselves have also managed to come up with a figure on what
they want to be compensated.
“On our side as government, we have done our evaluations
using the white farmers’ methodology for nine provinces on the value of
improvements,” he said.
Government requires at least US $9bn for the process but
put a mere US $53m aside in the 2019 budget.
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