Militants try to evict farming family

Angus Shaw, Harare

The standoff at a farm northeast of Harare came nearly a week after a government deadline passed for 2,900 white farmers to leave their land as part of the government’s land reform programme.

Police were called to the Condwelani farm near Bindura, 55 miles from Harare, but did not immediately intervene, said Jenni Williams, spokeswoman for Justice for Agriculture, a white farmers’ support group.

The militants dragged some belongings out of the house while the owners hid in locked rooms along with visiting reporters, the farmers’ group said.

Terry Hinde, who runs the farm with his son, said he was “in the process of being evicted” by militants and asked a moving company to collect his family’s belongings while he sought legal advice to challenge his removal, Williams said.

The government says its programme was a final effort to correct colonial era imbalances in land ownership by taking white-owned farms and giving them to blacks. Critics say it is part of the increasingly authoritarian government’s effort to maintain power amid more than two years of economic chaos and political violence, mainly blamed on the ruling party.

The government has taken no official action against the hundreds of white farmers who stayed on their farms after a deadline passed last Thursday. The farm standoff came as half Zimbabwe’s 12.5 million people face a hunger crisis, according to the UN World Food Programme. The WFP blames the crisis on drought combined with the agricultural chaos caused by the seizures.