Zimbabwe - Deal doesn’t secure land for SA farmers in Zimbabwe
26 Jan 2010
South African farmers in Zimbabwe are still being chased off their farms by land invaders. The latest victims are Dolf and Alida du Toit and their son, Rudolph. Reports say the Du Toits were assaulted and kicked off their farm in the Nyazura district in order to make way for the new owner, Brigadier Innocent Chiganze of the Zimbabwean Air Force.
Hundreds of white commercial farmers in Zimbabwe have been forced off their land by invaders, predominantly from Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, plunging Zimbabwe into a devastating food shortage. These farmers include South African citizens, who aren’t yet protected by a recently signed Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) between the Zimbabwean and South African governments.
The BIPPA has met widespread criticism for directly protecting only South African-owned business and mines in Zimbabwe. It also fails to mention directly the South African government’s promise to protect the rights of its farmers in Zimbabwe.
“We are confident that the BIPPA will be ratified by the Zimbabwean parliament, and that this will mark a move by the South African government to increase its efforts to protect the rights of South African farmers in Zimbabwe,” said Willie Spies, an attorney and legal expert with civil rights group AfriForum, which was behind the case in the North Gauteng High Court.
With regard to the Du Toits, AfriForum was pleased to note that the South African ambassador to Zimbabwe, Prof Mlungisi Makalima, was doing his best to help them. However, Prof Makalima recently told Spies that he was finding it difficult to get Zimbabwe to enforce the BIPPA until the Zimbabwean parliament had ratified it.
Agri SA’s executive director, Hans van der Merwe, said his organisation was pleased that progress was being made towards getting the South African government to find ways to address the losses being experienced by its farming citizens in Zimbabwe.
“About 500 South African farmers in Zimbabwe have been forced off their land. Agri SA is interested to see how the Zimbabwean and South African governments’ undertaking to compensate these farmers for their losses will play out,” Van der Merwe continued.
He said that Agri SA was in the process of establishing a forum that would mobilise South African citizens in protest against the actions of Zimbabwe’s government towards white farmers in that country.
The vice president of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union, Charles Taffs, told Farmer’s Weekly that things had gone from bad to worse for that country’s farmers.
The government announced recently that any lands leased back by white commercial farmers from land invaders would be confiscated, because it was not in line with the country’s land reform principles.
“It’s an openly, blatantly racist move,” Taffs added. “Agricultural production here is an absolute disaster, and the only avenue left to us is to expose this situation to the rest of the world. How can something like this be allowed to happen in the 21st century?
“There is no support from the rest of the world, especially from our fellow SADC countries. We are watching with interest how South African President Jacob Zuma is going to handle this latest development, following the signing of the BIPPA.”
Taffs pointed out that, while there was conflict over the protection of foreign investment in Zimbabwean agriculture, he did not foresee foreign investors being willing to risk their money in any Zimbabwean business sectors.
“It’s not a big step from the Zimbabwean government confiscating foreign agricultural investments to it confiscating other foreign investments in the country,” he concluded.
Shortly before going to press, it was reported that yet another South African farmer, Koos Smit, and his family had been chased off their farm in the Nyazura district. – Lloyd Phillips
Source: farmersweekly.co.za
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