Militants trap kids on Zim farm
2010-04-16 08:43
Special Report
Water is flowing again to a small, arid town in northern Zimbabwe after a traditional ceremony was held to appease "mermaids" who had been terrifying engineers trying to start the pumps.
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.
Pretoria - "War veterans" invaded another two Zimbabwean farms belonging to South Africans on Thursday, despite an agreement between the two countries that South African interests would be protected against such takeovers.
Both farms belong to Ian Furguson, who is currently recovering after an operation in Pretoria.
One of his sons, Arthur, was arrested on one of the farms and taken to the Beit Bridge police station on Thursday afternoon after he refused to leave the farm without his family.
His three children, aged between four and 10, are still on the farm which has been occupied by militants. Their mother is currently in Bulawayo and cannot return to the farm because of the circumstances.
"It's madness. I'm very concerned about the trauma my grandchildren must be going through," the furious grandfather said. The children are currently in the care of a mechanic and his wife who are still on the farm. However, the militants have threatened them and said that they have to be gone by Friday.
Ian Furguson jnr, another one of the owner's sons, said from Zimbabwe on Thursday: "The latest troubles started after the success of the court cases (by AfriForum) in South Africa."
Opportunistic
This time, however, there are strong indications that AfriForum's successful legal action and the seizure of Zimbabwean assets in Cape Town have become opportunistic justification for Zimbabwean militants to invade the remaining 5% of white-owned Zimbabwean farms.
Willie Spies, AfriForum's legal representative, said: "There's a link between our actions and this reaction. For that reason we're being very cautious.
"It's a dilemma. Remember, 95% of (white) farmers in Zimbabwe have already lost everything. We can't for the sake of the remaining five percent, stand by and do nothing."
Spies said AfriForum cautioned the Zimbabwean agricultural association, the CFU, about the possibility of a negative reaction, but in spite of that, the farmers in Zimbabwe are supportive of the continued legal action against the Zimbabwean government.
"But if people start getting hurt we'll stop the (legal) action."
AfriForum and the CFU will meet again on April 22 to discuss the consequences of their continued strategy in light of the new developments.
In the latest incident, the Furgusons' citrus farm, where Arthur farms, as well as an adjacent 17 500ha game farm with an estimated value of R88m were invaded. The farms are only 46km from Beit Bridge.
"There's more wildlife on the farm than anywhere else in Zimbabwe," said Furguson snr.
In a previous attack two of the luxury hunting lodges on the game farm, intended for use by hunters from abroad, were plundered by farm invaders.
"They took everything from the basins to the window frames. Our lodges are completely wrecked," Furguson snr said.
Furguson jnr left for Bulawayo on Thursday morning to attempt to get a high court interdict against the invaders.
"We don't have much hope of success. The court does not usually do anything."
- Media24 Africa