Elderly Zim couple under siege
2009-04-05 22:58
Angela Campbell shortly after she, her husband Mike and their son-in-law, Ben Freeth, were found after being attacked in Zimbabwe in June 2008. (Beeld, picture supplied)
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A dusty road leads to the village of Wedza, where veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war eke out a meagre living on their farm cooperative, which after a promising start now brings only despair.
Pietermaritzburg - An elderly Zimbabwean couple who were severely beaten by war-veterans in June last year, are said to be under siege on their farm in the Chegutu district.
Mike Campbell, 76, and his 68-year-old wife Angela were on Sunday trying to keep a group of veterans at bay after they frightened their workers away.
They're threatening to take over the farm.
The couple are alone on their farm with their daughter Cathy.
Karkloof farmer Peter Train, Angela's brother, told The Witness on Sunday that he suspected that the fact that the mango crop was ready to go now, formed part of the reason the farm was currently under threat.
Train said that eight war-veterans arrived in a Prado and began harassing the couple on Friday night.
"All their 150 workers arrived to protect the Campbells and they left, but on Saturday night they returned.
"The veterans got hold of six of their workers and beat them badly. One of them is in a critical condition."
Train said the police arrived, but said they had come not to help but to arrest the Campbell's son, Bruce. Bruce subsequently took off into the bush.
'There is no law there'
"My sister and brother-in-law have been holed up in their house all night, while the war-vets are chanting outside and trying to break in."
A worried Train alleged that the Zimbabwean police in that area were part and parcel of the harassment.
"There is no law there. We have spoken to the SA Agricultural Union who has alerted their Zimbabwean counterparts. Meanwhile the world stands back and looks."
The Campbells employ over 250 people altogether; 150 on the farm and their daughter employs 110 in her handcrafts project.
Train said he had been in contact with Angela by e-mail and phone and they were really traumatised.
He told The Witness that three farm workers had to be hospitalised after being beaten with iron bars. He said police who arrived at the farm eventually were armed with AK47s.
Workers intimidated
"They promptly arrested seven workers.
"There was no investigation into the actions of the war veterans."
Train added the truck from South Africa which arrived to fetch the mangoes had gone back empty, and that cows had not been milked because the workers were too intimidated to work.
"There is total intimidation now."
He said on Saturday night the war vets broke down the kitchen door, but did not advance further after Campbell threatened to shoot them.
Texas Jiji, the MDC spokesperson in KwaZulu-Natal, told The Witness he was unaware of this weekend's incident and that he would try and contact his people in Zimbabwe to try and find out the latest and to see what could be done to assist the couple.
Speaking to The Witness from Zimbabwe on Sunday, Hendrik Olivier of the Commercial Farmers' Union said pressure from the media was needed to put a stop to the invasions.
- The Witness