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About 60 farmers in Zimbabwe’s Glendale area - one of the most productive agricultural areas north of Harare - shut down their farms on Tuesday in protest against the continuing campaign of lawlessness carried out by liberation war veterans, media reports said.
The unending fields of emerald green winter wheat, usually dotted with labourers and arced by sprays of shimmering irrigation water, were eerily silent and abandoned. Virtually the only ones at work were security guards manning electrified gates and workers in essential tasks like milking dairy cows.
“We have struggled to get police support in containing the very malicious round we are in now,” said Malcolm Vowles, administrator for the Commercial Farmers’ Union in the region. “The community made its stand that until farming is returned to normality and we can operate in safety and without interference, the district is shut down.”
The report added that the decision was made after the veterans smashed the gates of local farming association member Nick Brooke’s farmstead on Monday and occupied his house, declaring that it and the rest of the 600 hectares of highly intensive mixed crop of wheat, cotton, maize, tobacco, soya and export hothouse roses was now theirs.
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
