Farm workers claim harassment by soldiers

Farm workers claim harassment by soldiers

• Mutasa tells banks to shun white farmers

• 'Stay with us...and constitute a nation based on national unity'

• Farmers hit by fertilizer shortages

• Cops want to quizz minister over GMB thefts

• Mugabe official had EIGHT farms

• Deputy Minister Matonga kicked out of farm

• Farmer set on fire in Zimbabwe

• Farmers' unions reject amalgamation

• White farmers 'invade' Zimbabwe farms

• White farmer savagely attacked in Chipinge

• Minister Chombo evicted from farm

• Zanu PF factions battle over farms

• Moyo in hot water over state farm

• Nkomo declares war on 'saboteurs and infiltrators'

• Nkomo orders Moyo, Made and Chinamasa to surrender farms

• No nationalisation - Moyo

• Zim to nationalise land - Nkomo

• Mugabe protects South African land

• Supreme court says land seizures 'legal'

• Zimbabwe court throws settlers lifeline

• Six farmers arrested in Karoi

• Supreme Court blow for farmers

• Zimbabwe land grab law challenged

By Lebo Nkatazo

ABOUT 100 contract farm workers at Hunyani Farm in Mashonaland West which has been placed under the government’s Operation Maguta to boost agriculture production have claimed harassment by soldiers.

Some workers told our correspondent that the army, which is overseeing farming operations in line with the Operation, was employing military tactics in an effort to extract maximum effort from the workers.

Hunyani Farm was allocated to Chinhoyi University of Technology, but the army moved in last October to supervise the farming activities.

The workers are contracted by the Chinhoyi University, with the army doing the supervisory work on the workers while the DDF is providing tractors.

Charles Nherera, the vice chancellor of the university however denied any allegations of harassment.

He said: "The army is just here to provide logistical support and nothing else. Claims of harassment are untrue as far as I know. You must come here and you will be proud of what we are doing for Zimbabwe."

Some workers claim they were assaulted after refusing to perfom duties which they say they are not paid for.

“We were engaged by the university to remove weeds, but on Monday soldiers started assigning us to do other farming activities, but we refused as we are not paid for that. They started assaulting everyone saying our attidutes are behind the current food shortages,” said one contract worker.

The university says the workers are paid $1,3 million monthly, a figure that the workers dispute.

Another worker added: “The soldiers have a base at the farm and they just descended on us. They kicked us, some hit us with tree branches. You could tell that some of them are drunk."

Presenting his monetary policy last month, central bank chief Gideon Gono said army commander, Constastine Chiwenga, warned him of civil unrest if the issue of food security was not addressed.

Chiwenga is alleged to have said the army did not want to end up turning guns on hungry Zimbabweans. Gono added that the country was “standing on the edge of a cliff which threatens to irreversibly take us downhill if we do not boldly move forward”.
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com