Veterans threaten ostrich farms

Zimbabwe war veterans illegally occupying four ostrich farms owned by an Indonesian company have cut off water supplies, threatening a multi-million dollar venture, the state news agency ZIANA said on Sunday. A spokesman for the Dollar Bubi group was quoted as saying that the severing of water supplies and “other disturbances” had caused a sharp decline in ostrich egg production, threatening an estimated 500 jobs.

The agency quoted a spokeswoman for the Dollar Bubi group of farms as saying the severing of water supplies and other disturbances on the properties had caused a sharp decline in ostrich egg production, threatening over 500 jobs. The news agency added that efforts by senior government officials had failed to get the war veterans off the properties.

Efforts by senior officials in President Robert Mugabe’s government have failed to get the squatters off the properties, which had been initially projected to earn millions of US dollars this year in ostrich meat and skin exports, ZIANA said.