Farmer seriously assaulted by land settlers

Via SW Radio Africa:

A Chinhoyi farmer who has faced continued and worsening harassment by land invaders in recent months, is this week recovering from serious injuries after a brutal beating by invaders on Tuesday.

Murray Pott from Hilltop Farm was hospitalised with head and arm injuries after he was attacked on his farm by a large group of men, believed to be responsible for a number of violent attacks on the farm recently. Last week some of Pott’s staff were attacked and assaulted by a group of about 15 youths, who forced the staff to stop working and also stole a trailer of fertiliser. When the workers tried to recover the trailer on Monday, five of them were beaten by the youths. In both cases police refused to investigate and even warned Pott that he would be arrested if he intervened.

To add insult to the serious injuries sustained, Pott was on Thursday charged with ‘Public Violence’ in connection with previous false allegations that he shot at and assaulted up to eight land ‘beneficiaries’ on his farm. Earlier this month Pott was taken into custody by Chinhoyi police and accused of the assault, despite the contradictory statements of his accusers and fabricated evidence. The charges are the latest in a string of legal accusations Pott has been fighting while trying to keep his land. In May Pott’s 80-year-old mother was assaulted and detained by police when they had arrested her son for being on the farm ‘illegally’. Pott’s arrest and the attack on his mother had been part of worsening harassment and intimidation on the farm.

This week’s attack on Pott comes amid warnings by the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) that recent comments by Robert Mugabe at a ZANU PF Youth League conference could incite more violence against farmers. At the conference last Friday, Mugabe urged commercial farmers to embrace land ‘reform’, telling the youths at the conference that the farmers would not be saved by the unity government.

“Once people have offer letters and they are valid, that’s it. The farm is not yours any more. Please don’t resist. I am saying please, please but that will stop,” Mugabe said. “If we hear about any resistance, we will stop pleading. I will just send the police to drive them away. If they thought they would be saved by the inclusive Government, kunyeperwa ikoko (they’re lying to you)!”

CFU President Deon Theron on Thursday explained that the speech might provide “fuel for further politically motivated violence and disturbances on commercial farms.” He continued by saying that people’s lives are possibly in jeopardy by the government’s decision to sacrifice “food self sufficiency for possible political gains.” Theron went on to explain that farmers have complied with the criteria set out by the Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement and that applications have been made to continue farming and occupation of their farms. “To date, regrettably, government has not responded to the numerous applications which were made,” Theron said.

“It appears that the government does not accept the legal rights of skilled commercial farmers,” Theron said. “Their land has been acquired in an arbitrary manner by the state and they are now excluded from being allowed to use their wide experience, knowledge and skills for the benefit of all Zimbabwean people.”

The worsening situation on farms, which has seen recently seen more than 140 farmers face prosecution for being on their land ‘illegally’, has prompted a series of visits by the government body tasked with ensuring the implementation of the Global Political Agreement. The team from the Joint Operations and Monitoring Committee (JOMIC) started their tour of farms, which have reported disturbances and violence for several months, on Monday, and a report on the situation is expected to be handed over to heads of JOMIC by the end of the month.

The move has been criticised by observers and some members of the farming community as ‘too little, too late’ and criticism is being directed at JOMIC for not acting on the farm attacks. Violent attacks against farmers and land seizures across the country have been widely reported on and detailed for months, but such reports have continued to fall on deaf ears. A JOMIC visit to the farms is understandably doing little to ease fears that the offensive against the farmers will ease any time soon, and what will happen in the aftermath of a report is still to be seen.

Meanwhile the government is recalling a judge it had seconded to the human rights court of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), as part of efforts to ‘pull out’ of the Tribunal. Former Harare High Court Justice Antoinette Guvava was nominated to the Tribunal in 2005 by the government, an issue which has been a key point of criticism in response to the government’s claims that it no longer recognises the Tribunal’s orders. Earlier this month it was revealed that the government was in the process of withdrawing from the court, in a letter by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa. Chinamasa wrote that the government would not adhere to any current or future rulings made by the court, arguing it is a not a legal body.

The Tribunal last year ruled that the land ‘reform’ programme was discriminatory, racist and illegal under the SADC Treaty. The regional court, in a landmark ruling, ordered the government not to evict more than 70 farmers who took their fight to the court, and the ruling was meant to offer protection to the farmers. But Mugabe has publicly dismissed the ruling and continues to condone the increasingly violent attacks on farms. The Tribunal has since ruled the government in contempt as a result of the ongoing land invasions, prompting the decision by the government to ‘pull-out’ of the legal body.

This entry was posted by Sokwanele2 on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 2:15 pm. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.