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New pressure on farmers

    JOHANNESBURG

    White commercial farmers in Zimbabwe are facing a new onslaught of lawlessness from liberation war veterans who are trying to force the illegal evictions of farmers from their homes, farm union officials said on Friday.

    News reports said commercial farmers from areas mostly around the capital, Harare, the central Midlands province and the southern Masvingo province, have been ordered to leave their properties as well as being threatened with violence, new invasions of farms, demands for money, destruction of property and the slaughter of their animals.

    “It’s not spontaneous, it’s breaking out all over the place,” said Commercial Farmers’ Union deputy director Jerry Grant. “The war vets are very militant. Demands are being made by war veterans for whites to get out of the house, they now own the farm.”

    The change follows the expiry of a deadline on Monday for the owners of 795 farms - listed by the government for expropriation - to submit their objections to the seizure of their land.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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