Zimbabwean farmers freed on bail

THE first white farmers charged with defying Zimbabwean government eviction orders appeared briefly in court yesterday and were freed on bail, allowing them to return to their homes.

Hundreds of the 2,900 white farmers ordered to leave their land by midnight on August 8 have remained. Many have reportedly been harassed by ruling party militants, but the Government made no serious move against them until the court case yesterday.

Mac Crawford, an official with the Commercial Farmers Union and one of the five arrested, said the farmers were told to reappear in court on September 6 in the town of Gwanda, 80 miles south of Bulawayo.

No bail conditions were imposed and they were free to return to their farms after posting £1015 bail, Mr Crawford said.

At least two other farmers were expected to appear in court in other towns yesterday in the first official moves against defiant landowners, he said.

Several others in the western Matabeleland province reported being served with papers yesterday summoning them to court later.

The police action was again shrouded in confusion. State radio quoted President Robert Mugabe saying no white farmers would be left landless or homeless. None would be deprived of their sole means of livelihood, Mugabe told a visiting group of African-American activists.

But Ignatius Chombo, the local government minister, warned that the Government had lost patience with hundreds of white farmers defying orders to leave their farms by midnight in August 8.

“We are considering a number of options to ensure the land redistribution programme is not unnecessarily derailed. Those defying the law should be duly charged,” he said.

Defiant farmers face a maximum penalty of up to two years in jail and a fine.

Jenni Williams, a spokeswoman for Justice for Agriculture, a white farmers pressure group, said: “What is being said and what is happening on the ground don’t merge.”