Commercial farmers win latest round against evictions

Ten commercial farmers in Zimbabwe this week won a legal round against the government's "fast-track" land reform programme, setting a precedent for farmers arrested for refusing to leave their land last month. The farmers were brought before the courts on allegations of violating their Section 8 acquisition orders, which forces them to stop farming and leave their land. Many of the over 300 farmers who had refused to quit were arrested and granted bail. The bail conditions varied, including stipulations that they could not return to their farms, that they had to vacate their land by a specified time, or that they could only return under police escort. The Harare High Court revoked the bail conditions on Monday, Commercial Farmers Union vice-president for commodities, Doug Taylor-Freeme, told IRIN. The rest of the farmers under similar bail conditions have been advised to consult their lawyers following the ruling. Taylor-Freeme said that in spite of receiving the Section 8 notices, some farmers had won permission to continue farming wheat, which was currently in short supply. However, he said a wave of labour disputes was disrupting production as farm workers sought their retrenchment packages. Some farmers had argued that they did not have the money needed to enable them to comply with this legal obligation, Taylor-Freeme said. Media reports on Tuesday said shots were fired when so-called war veterans surrounded a farm in the remote area of Karoi in northern Zimbabwe. Associated Press said that after people in the group shot at his homestead and tried to force him off his land, farmer Ian Cochrane fired eight shots into the ground and some shots over their heads. He was reported to be among a group of farmers contesting the legality of the government's eviction orders. The police could not immediately confirm the incident, and denied allegations that they did not help farmers who said their property was under siege. Police Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said people settling on farms were not only veterans from the country's liberation struggle but also landless peasants and disgruntled workers who were "entitled to protest", and the police would only act if there was violence. He told IRIN that previous reports that farmers had been held hostage by miltants were mostly "hearsay". The lobby group Justice for Agriculture has alleged that the government has exceeded its original goal of five million hectares of commercial farmland for redistribution. It said farmers were being targeted unfairly, and the authorities were not keeping to their promise to leave multi-farm owners with at least one farm. "The complaints from the farmers targeted are part of an agenda to demonise the land reform programme," Steyn Berejena, the senior spokesman in the Department of Information, told IRIN. He said owners of more than one farm had not come forward to identify which farm they wanted to keep, in accordance with the government's subdivision plans. Under President Robert Mugabe's land reform programme, almost 2,900 white farmers have been ordered to stop farming and make way for the resettlement of landless people. Taylor-Freeme said that due to the fluidity of the situation, it was not immediately clear how many farmers had already left, or were challenging their orders.