Zimbabwe whites told it is against law to farm land

From Jan Raath in Harare (The Times)

FROM midnight tonight it will be a crime for 2,900 Zimbabwean white farmers to produce food or exports to help to feed their country’s population, much of it now facing starvation.
In what could be the most serious single blow to the country’s already shattered economy, the farmers will tomorrow face arrest if they set foot on their lands. Twenty years ago the same farmers earned President Mugabe’s newly independent nation its reputation as the breadbasket of Africa. Now the law allows them only to stay in their homesteads.

Amendments last month to laws governing the confiscation of land order the closure of 60 per cent of the country’s productive farmland. In 45 days’ time even their homesteads will be denied them, when the Land Acquisition Act orders automatic eviction.

Violation of either deadline carries maximum penalties of two years in jail or a fine of Zim$20,000 (about £35).

For most of the remaining 40 per cent of the farmers, a rash of new 90-day expulsion orders is being issued, and 94 per cent of the 28 million acres of white farmland has been formally listed for Mr Mugabe’s land grab. A clause in the law allows farmers to apply for an exemption, and a group of tobacco farmers put in their applications last week. However, Jonathan Moyo, the Information Minister, was dismissive of the applications.

“They are a waste of time because they are cynical and sinister,” he said. “There will be no extra-judicial waiver. The land reform programme is real and irreversible.”

Jenni Williams, a spokesman for the Commercial Farmers’ Union, said: “This is insanity. Ranchers have got to water their cattle. They can’t just leave them. There are people with millions of dollars of wheat in the ground.

“People cannot just get up and walk away from everything they have built up in their lives. It’s absolutely unconstitutional.”

The farmers were divided on how to deal with the new threat, she said. “There will be those who will not abandon their homes and would rather face the authorities.”

Ironically, the most effective resistance to Mr Mugabe’s newest recklessness would be for all farmers to close down immediately and leave the regime with far worse food shortages, said Lindsay Campbell, 33, who farms tobacco and cattle in the Marondera area about 50 miles east of Harare.

“If we all just do what the minister says, they will realise pretty soon it wasn’t such a smart move,” she said. “On Monday we are going to move all our cattle off. We are going to stop everything on Tuesday. We are not going to move outside our security fence.”

The Campbells’ property has just been “resettled” for the second time. About two years ago it was allocated to peasant farmers who practise subsistence agriculture.

Now they have learnt that it has just been allocated again, this time to a senior government official. “The settlers are not going to like this,” she said.

Farmers will lose not only their land and homes, but all property that is “permanently” connected to the land, like pumps cemented into the ground and powerful electricity generators.

The new law says that farmers have the right to take their moveable property with them. In practice, most owners have been illegally forced, usually under police scrutiny, to leave with a couple of suitcases of clothing.

The tractors, earth-moving equipment, computers and sheds full of crops left behind, have been claimed by the senior ruling party functionaries, top military and police officers and their relatives — Zimbabwe’s new farming class — as their own.

Hopes for compensation have almost entirely been abandoned, especially now that the Government is in effect bankrupt and inflation is running at 120 per cent. Economists estimate that £5.5 billion worth of moveable assets have been illegally impounded or looted since February 2000, when ruling party militants began invading white farms.

Now I understand why people are so proud of that place....

TheRedGoat

They deserve what they get if they're not willing to take up arms to protect what's theirs.  If they leave, they will have capitulated in full.

Let me make a prediction--by the end of the year, the population of Zimbabwe will be starving.  The UN will start to deliver food to the population.  The Senior Government officials will use their "Staff" to take the food and re-sell it to the population.

The Liberal medial will have an outcry against this hideous act, and will demand action against the "Warlords" (the same ones they now call Senior Government Officials).  They will send in peacekeeping troops, and small skirmishes will occur.  Eventually, after several Billion dollars of aid and a few hundred UN/US soldier's lives are lost, the country will stabilize.  The white farmers will probably not bother to return to the land, and in a few years the starvation will start again.

Simplest solution--Send in UN peacekeepers to force the government to allow the white farmers to continue to grow on their land NOW.  At least that will prevent multiple cycles of starvation.  Too bad--that's not politically correct, so it will never happen.

AFARR

Yeah, poor old [IMG]http://www.contrabandent.com/cwm/s/contrib/xerx/happymobutuseseseko.gif[/IMG] Mugabe is calling for immediate international food relief to prevent famine [u]caused by a natural disaster beyond the government's control[/u]... [:O]

Sad part is, of course, that we'll most likely do as he asks. [pissed]

Do you hear that high-pitched humming noise?

That's Cecil Rhodes [b]spinning[/b] in his grave!

Of course that will never happen.  
I watched Black Hawk Down last night, and after reading this, I realized that we would bend over backwards to help feed the "skinnys", but there's no way in hell we'd send troops to help protect the white farmer.  [i]That would be like helping whitey to produce food to keep da black man down![/i]
I say move the farmers to a country where their skills and attitude are welcome (USA maybe???) and let them produce!!
Let the native/resident africans farm their own country and feed their own people.[@:D]



BTW, anyone hear about the tragedy here in Newcastle,WA.  A naked man hopped up on drugs shot a Sheriff 3 times in the head in front of a crowd of people(who couldent help in time).  The guy was yelling at the officer about whitey opressing black folk, and while he was doing that, his blond haired white girlfriend was yelling out the window at him, "Get back in here!  Your high, stupid!"  An eye witness at the scene called in to the Dave Ross show on 710 KIRO this morning here in Seattle and gave a 15 min account of the ordeal.

Sometimes you just have to sit back and let Darwin do his thing.  I see nothing wrong with this move by the government.  In fact, I would hope all African nations follow suit, starting with the ones with the heaviest muslim pops.

Sometimes whitey has to take one for the team.  In this case, the team is every nation who's citizens wouldn't sit back and starve while waiting for another handout.

Fuck em.

Just curious, What would the World Governments do if the races where reversed?

Kind of hard to hypothosize when there isn't a modern example of something like that taking place.  Maybe if you look at drug farmers, you might find an example, but then again drugs are bad, right?

IF your situation occured, you're probably looking at human rights violations and such since the black farmers would starve.  I'm betting the white farmers will survive, which is why I don't think its a major problem.  

Your situation is only interesting because white people can fend for themselves, which is why noone cares.

Scorched Earth.

They want it? They can have it. Burned out, blown up and useless.

Besides, given their natural proclivities, it'll be that way in six months anyway.

Screw Africa!

Don't Tread...

hmm,
reminds me of what happened in dutch south africa,....or detroit.
sometimes i wish i was black so i could get stuff for free and bitch about things that happened 200 years ago, and hopefully play the race guilt card with some hot trendy white chick who wants to "show" her parents, then i realize that they WANT me to be ashamed to be white and i have to get back to work, because millions of poor minorities on welfare are depending on me.

and why yes, i AM a racist, thanks for noticing. [:)]

Too bad our government idiots will not have the good sense to let 'em starve!!

Let's hear it for AIDS in Africa!!

Its not racist, its realist.  People who chose to see speak what they see instead of candy coating it with, "but 200 years ago they..." are not racist.  

Currently, one Zimabwean dollar buys what was worth about $.06Z in 1995.  Their GDP is falling 10% annually.  That country is screwed.  Look for another Somalia in the making, this time it's all man made, and they have their wonderful president Mugabe to thank for it.

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas.

Even the liberal food banks are saying that their food problems are directly associated with Mugabe's idiotic policies.  Whether that means they'll withold food is another story entirely.

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

The white farmers should just shut down operations and leave the country to it's own demise.  It's not like a hard working man/woman couldn't make a life for themselves somewhere besides that god-forsaken part of the world.  

Those people deserve what they bring upon themselves.  Fvck'em and let'em starve.

Please realize that these statements are made with the full realization that it will be our tax dollars that feed those a$$holes for the rest of their worthless lives.

Yes, I'm an ISOLATIONIST, thanks for noticing.  [:D]

[size=4]Sounds like a solution to me.[/size=4]

Hey, buddy -- you're in ZIMBABWE!  When the guys with the AK-47s come for your land, they aren't going to give you a chance to file an appeal. [rolleyes]

BTW, in case anyone's interested in the constitution of Zimbabwe:
[url]http://oncampus.richmond.edu/~jjones//confinder/Zimbabwe.htm[/url]

There is a section on "Protection from deprivation of property" which states that, "No property of any description or interest or right therein shall be compulsorily acquired except..."

The "except" is followed by about two pages of exceptions. [:|]

This has been coming for quite some time.  Any farmer with any sense should have gotten out long before this.  

If it was my place, and I had to leave everthing, I'd leave ashes.

Two years from now, when the country is in deep starvation, we'll start to hear from the UN and whiny Liberals in general about how we need to step in and make the region safe.  I say that we need to send--and I mean physically send--anyone who calls for such action right in there to "make a difference".  Some CA Congressman stands up and proposes that we help out?  Fine! You go first.  Pack a bag, your plane leaves tomorrow.

From the Zimbabwen "Constitution":

16 Protection from deprivation of property

(1) No property of any description or interest or right therein shall be compulsorily acquired except under the authority of a law that--

(a) requires--

(i) in the case of land or any interest or right therein, that the acquisition is reasonably necessary for the utilization of that or any other land--

A. for settlement for agricultural or other purposes; or

B. for purposes of land reorganization, forestry, environmental conservation or the utilization of wild life or other natural resources; or

C. for the relocation of persons dispossessed in consequence of the utilization of land for a purpose referred to in subparagraph A or B;

View Quote

....It looks like what's being done is perfectly legal there.  If I am reading this section of their constitution correctly, your property is yours "until we need to take it from you".  

Now, how many of our hard earned dollars will be shipped over there to feed them in a year or two?


FooBarBaz

Surely they will be given reparations?

LMFAO!!! - I hope the one's seeking reparations don't hold their breath.....

ANY OF THEM. [;D]

Where are all the protests that you would expect to see if the races were reversed?

Keving67

The hell with all of these "underdeveloped" nations. Screw them. We've been through this before. Seal off that whole continent, and don't go back for 10 years. 10 years later it will a lush unpopulated paradise with only the sounds of birds chirping to break the silence. Let's put those farmers up here for awhile until that day they can go back.