Mugabe confiscations

ZIMBABWE’S government yesterday announced plans to seize tractors and equipment from white farmers who have been thrown off their properties under President Robert Mugabe’s farm-seizure programme.

Owners who sell, damage or immobilise their machinery face a fine, or two years in jail, the presidential decree, published in an official notice, said. “It’s suddenly a crime to have a piece of equipment you cannot use, because you have been forced off your farm,” said John Worsely-Worswick, head of the Justice For Agriculture farmers’ organisation.

The decree empowers the Agriculture Ministry and its representatives to “enter any land or premises to ascertain whether there is any farm equipment or materials not being used for agricultural purposes”. Mugabe said the farm seizures, which began three years ago, were to correct colonial-era injustices that gave 4,000 whites one-third of the country’s productive land in a country of 12m people.

The notice said farmers could claim compensation for property ceded to the state. Worsely-Worswick said that, despite its promises, the government had failed to compensate for seized land, and owners were sceptical about payment for confiscated equipment. Mr Worsely-Worswick said displaced farmers stored their equipment in hope of returning to their farms, or to sell.