Please see our Action Alert posted yesterday (click here). Please take action to support the Chegutu farming community.

In Chegutu the dire situation continues at Sue and Thomas and Beattie’s Umvovo Farm. Burning tires are constantly being lit around the house in the past few days to try to intimidate or choke the Beattie’s out. The tires were being burnt again as I spoke to Sue yesterday over the phone, her house was full of smoke and she was choking on the acrid smoke as we spoke. Her daughter, Sarah-Jane Keevil, was trying to get to her mother in the house, but the thugs refused to let her through the gate. They threatened to touch her `inappropriately’ if she dared come there again. Sarah-Jane was thrown out of her own house on Dodhill Farm by Lands Officer Clever Kunonga’s brother-in-law in May this year. As we spoke the tires were burning so close to the Beattie’s house, a thatched one, that the fear in Sues voice was palpable. I vividly relived my own situation a few short months ago as the same thing had happened to us – and eventually our house was burnt down taking everything we owned.

Last night at the Beattie’s from midnight, the drums were beating constantly outside the house. The invaders lit a fire on the porch under the thatch, flames rearing dangerously close to the tinder dry grass. Sleep was out of the question as they banged on the windows, chanted and sang. The SMS from Sue at 5.30 this morning read “drums and raucous singing outside bedroom windows from midnight. Large fires-one on porch nearly lit the thatchthis is too scary.” (more…)

Details of how you can take action to support the affected people in Chegutu at the end of this post, where we ask you to call or sms Inspector Biperu, Clever Kunonga, Kembo Mohadi and Herbert Murewa.

There is chaos in Chegutu. Several farms have been experiencing an upsurge in harassment and intimidation by thugs trying to force the farmers to vacate their land. The harassment is continuing today. The reports seem to indicate that the thugs are splitting up and re-grouping on different farms, the fact that they are being ‘bussed in’ pointing to a higher level of coordination with access to resources beyond the reach of a typical poverty-stricken opportunistic ’settler’.

There are allegations that Edna Madzongwe – Speaker of the House of Senate – is linked to the upsurge in harassment in the area and possibly orchestrating the invasions. Mudzongwe has already stolen land in the area: Aitape and Stockdale Citrus Estate. The rumours are that she is desperate to acquire another farm close-by before any agreements regarding land are formalised between South Africa and Zimbabwe. (more…)

NB: This footage does not show what happened today. It reveals that Kunongo has done this before.

It has been a day of hell for Tom and Sue Beattie of Umvovo Farm in Chegutu. Justice for Agriculture (JAG) provided a distressing timeline of experiences for the Beatties (included in this post), culminating in today’s events, which began when Chegutu’s Lands Officer, Clever Kunonga, arrived at the Beatties home and demanded they leave the property.

The YouTube clip at the top of this post gives some sense of what the Beatties must have experienced. This clip does not show what happened today: it was filmed in March this year when thugs led by Clever Kunonga invaded Reydon Farm. The chaos and sense of imminent danger are palpable – something most people cannot comprehend.

Sue Beattie’s sms messages to a friend throughout the day today captured her sense of alarm, fear and despondancy:

9:19 am At the moment they are all around the house . Police doing nothing. Waiting for Land Officer Kunonga to bring official letter but he himself was fired by the governor last week.

9:23 am Stolen all the milk from the dairy. Dogs and horses all on the loose.

9:56 am Officer in charge Chegutu is outside on back of truck asking Tom what is way forward! (more…)

Gideon Gono

There’s a lot of chat among Zimbabweans at the moment about the rumours we are hearing of massive production of Zimbabwe dollar bills.

The talk is that these bills are being transferred into big-wig bank accounts (people like Gono and his crew) which are swelling fast with Zim dollars.

People are speculating that these individuals, who have already enriched themselves at the expense of the Zimbabwe economy, are readying themselves for the day the Ministry of Finance decides on a rate to reimburse all those people who had Zim dollars in their account shortly before dollarisation.

As worthless as the Zimbabwe dollar was at the time, it is acknowledged that the switch to a different currencies left those who only had Zim dollars, and no US or Rands, with a disadvantage.

So the thinking on the streets is that Gono and his sordid crew are packing their accounts to the gills with local currency which they plan to exchange for the real-deal – US dollars – when the reimbursement rate is announced. (more…)

ZLHR Press Release – 25 Nov : The State witness in the trial of Deputy Agriculture Minister-Designate, Roy Bennett on Tuesday 24 November 2009 stunned the High Court after he claimed that Michael Hitschmann spent a whole night in 2006 writing a statement to the police.

Michael Joseph Nyakatawa, a member of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) who testified in the trial of Bennett on Wednesday told High Court Judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu that he together with Chief Superintendent Sipho James Makone interviewed Hitschmann in a room at Adams Barracks in Manicaland to establish his acquisition and possession of “arms of war”. He said the interview lasted for 45 minutes.

Nyakatawa said Hitschmann spend the night of 6 March 2006 when he was arrested writing a statement to the police under their guard at Adams Barracks.

Nyakatawa said they took turns with Makone to keep guard over Hitschmann as he wrote his statement from around 21:00 hours until 05:00 hours.

He also denied allegations raised by Defence lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa to the effect that Hitschmann was severely tortured on the night he was arrested.

Nyakatawa also told Justice Bhunu that no inventory of the weapons recovered at Hitschmann’s residence was done at the time of the recovery of the firearms.

The third State witness Detective Inspector Arnold Zorodzai Lungisani Dhliwayo also told the court that he was present during the video recording of Hitschmann’s confessions by an army officer Panganai Mugejo.

Trial continues Wednesday at 11:am.

Update: 26 November 2009 – via SW Radio Africa:

The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria made an order in terms of which the Government of South Africa undertakes to respect and honour the judgments by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal in favour of commercial farmers in Zimbabwe, and to uphold the rights and remedies of victims of Zimbabwe’s unlawful land expropriation exercise.

More here.

IN RE: PROPOSED BILATERAL INVESTMENT PROMOTION AND PROTECTION AGREEMENT BETWEEN ZIMBABWE AND SOUTH AFRICA

OPINION
J.J. GAUNTLETT SC
F.B. PELSER
Chambers
Cape Town
21 November 2009

A. INTRODUCTION

1. Our Consultant is the Commercial Farmers Union.

2. We have been asked to consider urgently the proposed conclusion of a Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (“BIPPA”) between South Africa and Zimbabwe (both members of the South African Development Community (“SADC”))¹, and to advise on the relevant international and constitutional law obligations impacting thereon. Of significance is the fact that the BIPPA – which is aimed at providing security of tenure to South African investments in Zimbabwe – expressly excludes past claims arising from Zimbabwe’s post-2000 land seizure measures, despite the fact that such claims have been upheld by the relevant international court.

3. The question for consideration is whether entering into a bilateral treaty which purports to exclude liability arising (the SADC Tribunal has held, in its final award on 28 November 2008) in terms of an existing multilateral treaty constitutes a breach of South Africa’s legal obligations. For the reasons provided below, we answer the question in the affirmative. (more…)

Tourism, once one of the cash cows of the economy, is on the mend. Recent figures show a dramatic turnaround. In the last 3 months hotel occupancy has risen from about 30% to around 70%. However, the effect is being mainly felt in key tourist destinations such as the Victoria Falls and other centres are yet to benefit significantly.

The shortage of cash is affecting day to day business dealings and this is constraining the expansion that is evident in various sectors of the economy.

Banks are nervous amid reports of a large shipment of new Zim Dollar bank notes that have arrived flown in on an Air Mauritius flight, add to the concern. Part of the consignment arrived in Bulawayo for disbursement two days ago.

There is a steady transition to US Dollars in the South where the Rand once dominated. It seems that the South African currency is being consumed in cross border trade as cash. More and more US Dollars are circulating and these notes are deteriorating in quality and literally falling to pieces in some cases. Traders are often refusing old notes and this is causing conflict at stores and vendor stalls despite the US Embassy issuing a directive on the validity of soiled cash.

Investor excitement continues to circulate in the business community as bargain hunters abound hoping to pick up attractive deals before there is a secure political settlement.