Dramatic surge in Zim land grabs

Farmers’ rights group Justice for Agriculture (JAG) has evidence of a dramatic upsurge in farm invasions since the formation of Zimbabwe’s unity government, between Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party and Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in February.
JAG received reports from 22 landowners between 25 February and 7 April about 30 incidents ranging from harassment to forced eviction. This was in addition to attacks before and after the unity government was formed on 11 February. In one case, nine properties were gazetted for resettlement less than a week before Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister of Zimbabwe.
The latest attacks come as Zimbabwe appeals to the international community for US,5 billion (R75 trillion)in reconstruction aid. Meanwhile the MDC’s finance minister Tendai Biti warned the latest invasions were keeping potential investors away. “We are very unhappy with the situation on the farms,” he told a German wire agency.
JAG reports identified senior Zanu-PF politicians, army officers and members of the judiciary, lands officers, police top brass and former senators as perpetrators in several latest cases, including senate leader Edna Madzongwe, Brigadier-General Itayi Mujaji and Harare East MP Justice Zvandasara. Major hotspots were Chigutu, Manicaland, and Chiredzi.
The unity government has pledged to introduce economic reforms and restore the rule of law. Several important reforms have already been implemented, including abolishing price controls for farm produce, allowing businesses to trade in any foreign currency, which has resulted in consumer goods becoming freely available again, and reducing the power of the reserve bank to raise funds.
Crackdowns on political gatherings have also ceased, reports of harassment by secret police and other political violence have decreased and most political prisoners have been released. But farm attacks continue unabated despite their negative impact on investor sentiment, said JAG representative John Worsley-Worswick. “Mugabe is determined to make a mockery of unity government agreements,” he said. “When it comes to the farm invasions he’s succeeding.” He believes reports that the youth militia and the shadowy Joint Operational Command (JOC) have been disbanded are false. The JOC is a group of army generals and police and intelligence chiefs accused of masterminding the wave of violence that engulfed Zimbabwe after the MDC won the parliamentary elections last year. “The militia is still on the government payroll and the JOC is still operating,” Worsley-Worswick insists. “They continue to act with impunity on farms.”
Analysts interviewed argue the land issue remains politically explosive in Zimbabwe. They said a land audit agreed on by the unity government will be dealt with last because it’ll expose the extent to which Zanu-PF party bosses benefited from land reforms at the expense of both white commercial farmers and a land-hungry black peasantry.
Meanwhile Mugabe has called allegations of renewed land grabs “wicked lies”, insisting the farm seizures are legal. “Those who now wish to cause confusion by claiming there are farm invasions should be warned that their malicious and wicked lies will not deter government from its pledge to economically empower the people … through legal means,” he told the state-controlled Herald newspaper. – Stephan Hofstätter