The Zimbabwean LIed!!!
Mahoso invades Mutare farm
Written by Gift Phiri
Friday, 27 November 2009 12:32
tafataona__mahosoMUTARE – President Robert Mugabe’s former chief media policeman Tafataona Mahoso has invaded a commercial farm near Mutare, giving the white owner only 48 hours to vacate the property that had been his home for years. (Pictured: Tafataona Mahoso)
Top military commanders, officials and supporters of Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party have stepped farm seizures despite formation of a unity government nine months ago and a ruling by the SADC Tribunal outlawing land grabs.
A devastated Charles Bezuidenhout told of how Mahoso – who ordered the closure of independent newspapers including the Daily News during his time as chairman of the now defunct Media and Information Commission – last month stormed his Welverdien Farm accompanied by an army of AREX officers and announced he was taking over the property.
Offer letter
Bezuidenhout initially resisted Mahoso’s attempts to evict him apparently because the former journalism lecturer did not produce an offer letter from he government showing that he had been allocated the farm.
Mahoso went away only to return this month with an offer letter for the 200-hactare farm and told Bezuidenhout to leave immediately.
When Bezuidenhout attempted to seek help from local police he was simply told that if Mahoso – earmarked by Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party to head the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe – wanted the property then the farmer had to make way.
“Its the law of the jungle really. Mahoso and Agritex people produced an offer letter and just took the farm just like that,” said Bezuidenhout.
Earlier Bezuidenhout had accepted a government offer to subdivide his farm between himself and state-appointed “settlers”, an arrangement government officials assured the farmer would allow him to continue farming. But that was until Mahoso turned up demanding the piece that Bezuidenhout had kept after subdivision of his farm.
Mahoso did not answer his phone when The Zimbabwean on Sunday tried to contact him last Friday for comment on the matter.
Chegutu farms
Meanwhile farm invaders stepped up attacks on four commercial farms near Chegutu last week, SW Radio Africa reported.
In a interview with the radio farmer Ben Freeth described the situation in the farming community in Chegutu as “very tense” as mobs of Zanu (PF) supporters acted with total impunity on the four different properties.
Freeth explained how Tom and Sue Beattie from Umvovo farm have been given five days to leave their property, after months of harassment and intimidation by land invaders came to a head last Thursday morning.
The invaders, led by a man known only as Hanyani, had recently intensified their efforts to drive the family and their workers off the farm, including breaking into the Beatties’ home in August and assaulting Sue.
Last Thursday morning Hanyani, accompanied by Lands Officer Clever Kunonga, arrived on the property demanding that the family leave. By late afternoon the situation had turned threatening, with multiple fires being lit around the family’s thatched homestead.
Umvovo farm used to be one of the area’s most productive pieces of land, growing close to 3 000 hectares of crops when the rule of law in Zimbabwe once prevailed.
But production on the farm has been completely halted, with the land invaders physically stopping any planting, as well as chasing away the farm’s workforce.
Freeth explained that, with this year’s national crop at the lowest ever level of approximately 20 000 tons, “the Beattie family alone could have increased the national crop by 20 percent if law and order were allowed to prevail in Zimbabwe”.
The Beatties used to employ well over a thousand workers, but this year the workers are mostly unemployed, leaving even more Zimbabwean families destitute. The land invaders have since taken over the farm workers’ homes as well as other cottages on the property, holding late night parties as part of their efforts to drive the Beatties off the farm.
Cronies benefited
It is understood that the invasion is being carried out on behalf of Senate President Edna Madzongwe, who also led the lawless attacks and eventual takeover of Stockdale Citrus Farm.
At the same time, Lands Officer Kunonga’s brother, Abel, earlier this year led the invasion on the Keevil family’s Dodhill farm, an attack that eventually saw the Keevils forcibly evicted.
Chegutu police have refused to assist the Beatties or any other farmers in the area who have faced similar attacks, leaving the farmers completely helpless against the unlawful ‘jambanjas’.
Mugabe has defended his government’s chaotic and often violent farm redistribution exercise that saw the majority of the about 4 000 white commercial farmers expelled from the land, saying it was necessary to ensure blacks also had access to arable land that they were denied by previous white-led governments.
But critics blame the land reforms for plunging Zimbabwe into food shortages after Mugabe failed to support the black villagers resettled on former white farms to maintain production.
In addition, the critics say Mugabe’s cronies – and not ordinary peasants – benefited the most from the farm seizures with some of them ending up with as many as six farms each against the government’s stated one-man-one-farm policy.
A WEEK LATER
Mahoso did not give farmer 48-hour eviction order
Written by The Zimbabwean
Saturday, 05 December 2009 14:24
tafataona_mahosoHARARE – Former Media and Information Commission boss Tafataona Mahoso (pictured) will occupy only half of the 400-hactare Welverdien farm near Mutare with the remainder of the property remaining in the hands of owner Charles Bezuidenhout, according to the latest information made available to The Zimbabwean on Sunday.
Mahoso, who visited Welverdien farm last October, has an offer letter for 200 hectares of the property. The latest sub-division of Bezuidenhout’s farm is the second time that the farmer will cede land under the government’s land reform programme after he gave up 133 hectares of his originally 533-hectare farm in November last year.
When the land was sub-divided last year provincial land officers told Bezuidenhout that no one would interfere with his property again. Asked why they were going back on last year’s promise, the officers simply said they were “following orders”. However the land officers told Mahoso that Bezuidenhout was to keep the section of the farm where he carries out his dairy operations, during a transaction that was not as acrimonious as we erroneously reported last week. In our report last Sunday we incorrectly stated that Mahoso stormed Welverdien farm accompanied by an army of land officers and that he gave the farmer 48 hours to leave.
According to Bezuidenhout: “Mahoso did not arrive and give me 48 hours to leave the farm. I did not contact the police and ask for help as it was not needed.” Meanwhile provincial land officers are expected to return to Welverdien farm to finalise demarcation of the property following a misunderstanding between Bezuidenhout and Mahoso after the former journalism lecturer had indicated he wanted the section where the farmer grows maize and sunflowers for his dairy cattle.
We apologise to Bezuidenhout, Mahoso and Manicaland provincial land officers for any inconveniences caused by the inaccuracies in our report last week.
While it is common cause that the fast-track land reform programme has largely been chaotic and often violent there are a few instances – as appears to be the case with Welverdien farm – where commercial farmers and new settlers have with assistance from land officers been able to amicably agree on how to share a property.
REF : http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:aeFHb4h7B58J:www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/2009112727075/sunday-top-stories/mahoso-invades-mutare-farm.html+ZIMBABWEAN+ON+sUNDAY+:+MAHOSO&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=zw
AND
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/2009120527263/sunday-top-stories/mahoso-did-not-give-farmer-48-hour-eviction-order.html?q=mahoso
