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Destruction of Zimbabwe's backbone industry in pursuit of political power: A qualitative report on events in Zimbabwe's commercial farming sector since the year 2000
Justice for Agriculture (JAG) and the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ)
April 2008

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Executive Summary

The findings of this study severely undermine the Zimbabwean Government's public rhetoric on the invasion and acquisition of white-owned farms from late February 2000 to the present. This study presents considerable evidence that the Zimbabwean Government has carefully manipulated public perception of these events to tie in with its anti neo-colonial, anti-Western, pseudo pan-Africanist and nationalistic rhetoric.

The study presents the qualitative data obtained from interviewing 71 evicted informants, of whom 69 were farmers and 2 worked in farm security operations. These interviews were combined with other documentary evidence obtained from informants and analysed. The data shows an organised and state-sponsored breakdown in the rule of law.

The invasion of white-owned farms was conducted by organised groups consisting largely of ZANU PF youths headed by War Veterans. These groups were supplied, paid and transported by Government agencies including the Zimbabwe Republican Police, the CIO and the Zimbabwe National Army.

These groups of settlers and others were responsible for gross human rights violations perpetrated on white farmers and their black workers.

Table 1: Distribution of violations reported by the survey sample [n=71]

The victims of these violations were primarily the farm workers; of the 216 assault victims, 51 were farmers and 165 were farm workers. These extensive violations against the farm workers strongly suggest that the Government's agenda extended beyond the purported farmer-State conflict to the enforced political submission of a million people. In addition to the violations tabulated above, the study reports mass psychological torture on farm workers, work stoppages, theft, extortion, poaching, destruction of equipment and, most significantly, political intimidation.

The settlers on the farms conducted a violent campaign for ZANU PF by beating, torturing and murdering members of the opposition party, the MDC. Compulsory rallies were regularly held, as were all night pungwes where farm workers were forced to stay awake, singing and shouting in support of ZANU PF and beating those accused of being "sell-outs" or MDC supporters. Roadblocks and barricades were impossible to pass through without demonstrating possession of a ZANU PF card. MDC T-shirts, flyers and registration books were destroyed or forcibly "confiscated."

The organised violence on the farms was implicitly condoned by the police, who failed to uphold the law or to protect life and property. The survey sample records 82 incidents where police either failed to take reports, lay charges and arrest perpetrators, or else were themselves directly involved in criminal acts. Policemen described in the survey sample: transported settlers to farms; witnessed evictions, abductions, assaults, torture and arson without reacting; refused to evict illegal settlers even when presented with valid court orders; assaulted people; failed to intervene in serious assaults involving fire-arms; failed to assist farmers being barricaded into their houses for periods of up to 7 weeks; covered up the murder of a worker; handed over a detainee to War Veterans for illegal incarceration; encouraged theft; made comments inciting racial hatred; and illegally evicted farmers.

Police explained this litany of crimes of omission and commission with the excuse that they couldn't assist because "it was a political matter". Ironically, of course, this was perfectly true. It appears clear from the survey sample that the police had been ordered not to intervene whilst ZANU PF forces conducted a crippling and nationwide assault on farmers and farm workers who were perceived as MDC supporters. In the rare cases where police did intervene to stop serious incidents they were always successful. Also suspicious were the frequent transfers of sympathetic policemen from their posts.

Other Government agencies were also directly involved in crimes on the farms. Most notably, the Zimbabwe Air Force, the Zimbabwe National Army, the CIO, DA's and Provincial Governors are alleged to have committed acts ranging from theft right the way through to murder. These acts were committed with general impunity as police failed to arrest perpetrators on numerous instances.

A combination of these pressures forced farmers into leaving their farms. 100% of the interviewees in the survey sample were evicted without an eviction order from a competent court. These illegal evictions were generally carried out with the full knowledge of, and in some cases by, the police.

The chief beneficiaries of the exercise have not been the landless poor. The majority of farms in the survey sample were allocated to A2 settlers with strong ties to the Government and ZANU PF. This list of settlers includes: close relatives of Robert Mugabe, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, Senators, DAs, judges and magistrates, officials from the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture, Agritex, GMB, the ZRP, ZNA, Zimbabwe Air Force, CIO, National Parks, and Government doctors and nurses. This blatant system of patronage is a double-edged sword. Whilst the new A2 farmers have been rewarded with the allocation of farms, they do not possess the title deeds for this land, and are thus in a precarious position. Any show of disloyalty can result in the immediate confiscation of their farm. This encourages and ensures their continued support for the embattled regime. This political elite are thus in a highly compromised and vulnerable position. The fact, for example, that Judges have been given farms places serious doubts on the impartiality of the courts, particularly in cases involving land.

The survey sample demonstrates trauma on a massive scale. 45% of the farmers interviewed demonstrate clinically significant levels of trauma. The human cost of the "land reform" exercise has been devastating.

It is clear that the Zimbabwean Government has been highly successful in its manipulation of the public perception of these events. It must be stated bluntly: there was no revolution. The invasions were State-inspired, sponsored, instigated and supported. Gross human rights violations were perpetrated on the farms, committed with the full knowledge of, and by, the State.

Most importantly, the survey sample suggests that the division of white farmers and black farm workers into separate constituencies is misleading. Farmers and farm workers should be viewed as constituting one entity as they both suffered from the same policy and for the same reason: their perceived support for the opposition MDC party. The chief motivation for this exercise was indeed, as the police repeatedly stated, "political" - a politically driven campaign by ZANU PF to reassert its authority in rural constituencies in the wake of its defeat in the February 2000 referendum.

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