Madzongwe named in fresh farm grab

Madzongwe named in fresh farm grab

PROBE: DPM Arthur Mutambara

• Mutambara leads probe into farm invasions

• Ministers threatened with arrest in white farmer's case

• Mugabe says farm invasion reports 'lies'

• Tsvangirai orders farm invaders arrested

• Mnangagwa sucked into GMB inputs scam

• Mugabe vows to press on with land seizures

• MDC set to sanction MPs named in farm inputs scandal

• Feudalism: the real problem with Zimbabwe's agriculture

• Zanu PF councillor, senator busted over inputs scam

• Renson Gasela: Zimbabwe faces food deficit in 2010

• 'Your people will stone you on the streets' - what Cook told Mudenge

• Court says Zim wrong to take over German company's farm

• Mugabe says tribunal ruling on white farmers 'exercise in futility'

• Zimbabwe rejects ruling on white farms

• SADC tribunal rules 78 white farmers can keep their land

• Zimbabwe wants Britain to compensate white farmers

• Kudakwashe Marazanye: More black casualties in Mugabe's ego fight with whites

• Renson Gasela: Zimbabwe's dilemma - growing food for people or cars?

• Joram Nyathi: Propaganda has its limits

• Gasela: Zimbabwe must brace for food deficit next year

• Paul Boateng: Zimbabwe broke land deal

• Mutambara: Clumsy Zanu PF propaganda on farms

Posted to the web: 17/04/2009 18:36:03
DEPUTY Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara vowed on Friday to act against illegal farm invasions amid claims that a top lawmaker and Robert Mugabe ally was behind a fresh seizure.

"There will be no holy cows. The axe will hit where it may and we will not tolerate any government official who is prolonging lawlessness in the country," Mutambara said while leading a government team in Chegutu.

Farmers in the area, 120 kilometres south west of Harare, told officials that 17 farms had been affected since January and that Zimbabwe's senate president was behind one of the seizures.

Fresh farm grabs have further tarnished the country's image abroad as it desperately seeks foreign investment to kickstart the economy after years of ruin, Mutambara told reporters.

"Our country is trying to attract investment, attract foreign aid, we can't afford to be damaging business confidence in this country," he said.

White farmers have reported a surge in violence despite a power-sharing deal between long-time President Mugabe and new Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who formed a unity government in February.

Chegutu farmer Peter Etheredge told reporters that Zimbabwe's senate president Edna Madzongwe had forced his family off their farm Stockdale.

"We have been off this farm for more than a month. We were forced out by Mrs Madzongwe," he told reporters.

With a Mugabe election poster hanging by the gate, police guarded the entrance to Stockdale on Friday. One officer cocked a firearm when Etheredge unlocked the gate before withdrawing to call the new owner.

Madzongwe's daughter, Farai, who was at the property said the government had authorised the farm.

"The offer letter was given to my mother (Madzongwe) in 2007. Etheredge opened the gate for us. We haven't moved on to the farm, nothing is happening here we are just assessing what is here," she said.

"My mother is considered as one of the top law officers in the country. My mother is not in the habit of breaking the law."

At some farms, gun-toting youths could be seen guarding entrances to the farmhouses. Market-ready boxed fruits like mangoes and oranges were in a state of decomposition and machinery lay unused.

At Mount Carmel farm, owner Ben Freeth said rotting market-ready mangoes in a shipment that failed to leave were worth 60,000 US dollars (46,000 euros). A total of 17 Chegutu farms have had disruptions leading to 1,600 job losses since January, he said.

Tsvangirai last month decried the fresh invasions and warned that those responsible for the farm disruptions risked arrest. Mugabe, however, has insisted that his controversial land reforms would continue.

The land reforms launched in 2000 aimed to resettle blacks on 4,000 white-owned commercial farms, but the process was marred by politically charged violence.

The scheme has drastically reduced agricultural production, which once accounted for 40 percent of the economy. Now more some seven million people, more than half the population, rely on international food aid. - AFP
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