White farmer gets suspended sentence, ordered off farm

White farmer gets suspended sentence, ordered off farm

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By Lebo Nkatazo

A ZIMBABWEAN magistrate sentenced a white farmer to a wholly suspended six-month prison term and gave him a deadline of 30 days to vacate his farm in favour of a black farmer.

Beatrice farmer Gideon Theron, who is also the Vice President of the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU), was convicted by Harare magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini of contravening provisions of the Gazetted Land (Consequential Provisions) Act, for allegedly illegally occupying land in defiance of government’s eviction orders.

Gospel musician and Zanu PF parliamentary election candidate Elias Musakwa is eying the dairy farm.

The magistrate said Theron – who supplies 2 percent of Harare’s milk requirements -- should vacate the farm by April 27.

“We are noting an appeal against both the conviction and sentence,” Theron’s lawyer Elasto Mugwadi of Harare law firm Byron and Venturas said in an interview.

Theron is the first white farmer to be convicted for defying an eviction notice under the country's controversial land laws.

He could have been given a two-year jail term. Only around 300 white farmers still occupy farms in Zimbabwe, out of more than 4,000 eight years ago.

A land reform programme launched in 2000 saw most of the country's white farming community forced off their farms by President Robert Mugabe's war veterans.

Zimbabwe's chronic food shortages have been linked to the land seizures. Mugabes government blames drought and Western sanctions.
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