Scores of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe have been invaded since the country's national unity government took office, a union chief has told the BBC.

Commercial Farmers Union President Trevor Gifford said 77 properties had been occupied in the last fortnight.

MPs, police, the military and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe officials had taken part in the invasions, he said.

Many of the farmers targeted recently mounted a successful legal challenge to government land reforms, he added.

The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Tribunal ruled in November the Zimbabwe government's programme of seizing white-owned property for redistribution to landless blacks was discriminatory and illegal.

The government said at the time that it would not comply with the ruling.

Meanwhile, Roy Bennett - the MDC's nominee for deputy agricultural minister - faces a bail hearing on Tuesday after he was arrested this month accused of terrorism on charges his supporters say are trumped-up.

'Ethnic cleansing'

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister earlier this month in a unity government with President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF.

The power-sharing deal was eventually agreed after disputed elections and months of talks, during which the economy slid into a deepening crisis.

Mr Gifford told the BBC News website the recent spate of invasions was focused on the provinces of Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland West, Masvingo and Midlands.

The CFU president blamed the invasions on a minority of figures close to Zanu-PF who were "using their offices to ensure ethnic cleansing can take place before the prime minister is able to stabilise the country".

"This is being led by members of the old regime in Zanu-PF who are not willing to see the transition take place to a new unity government," Mr Gifford added.

The ministers of agriculture and lands - both ministries run by Zanu-PF in the unity administration - were unavailable for comment when contacted by the BBC.

"Zimbabwe is facing a severe food crisis and we're in the midst of the agricultural season so the impact of this will worsen the catastrophe."

More than half Zimbabwe's population is in need of food aid and inflation - estimated by some economists at 10 sextillion per cent - has left its currency almost worthless.

Mr Gifford said there were about 400 white-owned farms left functioning in Zimbabwe.

More than half Zimbabwe's population is in need of food aid and inflation - estimated by some economists at 10 sextillion per cent - has left its currency almost worthless.

er... "almost" worthless?  That's a bit optimistic...


Mr Gifford said there were about 400 white-owned farms left functioning in Zimbabwe.

I didn't realize it was that many after Mugabe's last round of idiocy, giving out land to soldiers who had no idea how to farm...

Having said that, I'm not sure that Mugabe's the main cause here any more: he's kind of a puppet to Zanu-PF and they know when he goes, they're for the high jump.

More than half Zimbabwe's population is in need of food aid and inflation - estimated by some economists at 10 sextillion per cent - has left its currency almost worthless.


10 sextillion?  What the hell kind of number is that?  That's a number for physicists.  That's something like more than the weight of the entire universe plus two watermelons!  I don't know how you arrive at such a figure when it comes to economic inflation.  Lunacy, I tells ya, lunacy!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/07/nut.gif

10 sextillion?  What the hell kind of number is that?  That's a number for physicists.  That's something like more than the weight of the entire universe plus two watermelons!  I don't know how you arrive at such a figure when it comes to economic inflation.  Lunacy, I tells ya, lunacy!
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/07/nut.gif

As you ask, sextillion is a number raised to the seventh power (1021).

As you ask, sextillion is a number raised to the seventh power (1021).




OK, so if we wanted to count by ones to 10 sextillion, how long would it take us?
???

is that 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

is that 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Now that looks a lot.

Yep...at least one cent!

http://i40.tinypic.com/vnk07m.jpg

OK, so if we wanted to count be ones to 10 sextillion, how long would it take us?
???



1, 2, 3, 4.... I think sometime about 50 quadrillion years after our sun burns out.

signature banned as well

I find Mugabe just as reprehensible as I do any of the other sheeshty African dictators. However, I also find it hard to feel sorry for the odd 20,000 white land owners (many, if not most of whom are quite wealthy) in Zimbabwe. I mean, if things get out of hand it's not like any of the white 'Rhodesians' would have a hard time getting a visa to go live in Australia or Canada or wherever, which is something hardly any black Zimbabwean could do. And that's totally based on race, and it's an unspoken, practical racism used by all western countries. If you're a white ex-Rhodesian, you will be granted a visa. If you're a black Zimbabwean, you can pretty much forget it.

And let's not be afraid to say what's true but unpopular, and that's that whether or not some of these whites were born in Rhodesia (and I say some because so many of them were not), they are not really Africans in anything but the judicial sense. They are mostly British. That's their language, that's their culture and if it weren't for an ongoing spirit of modern colonialism it would still be their country.

This wild rebellion of the vast black majority of former second-class citizens was to be expected. Any Rhodesian who knew what was good for him got out of dodge long ago. The ones that stayed were the ones who thought there was still money to be made in farming, diamonds etc... Neo-colonialists plain and simple. From where I'm standing at present, this is not a humanitarian crisis, it's a small problem with an easy solution. Sell what assets you have left in Zimbabwe, and move to a Commonwealth realm where you belong.

I knew a guy whose father was in the British army in Zimbabwe when it was Rhodesia.  The stories he told about the treatment of the people by the farm owners would make you cringe.  Even worse was his apparent need to find rationalization for the attitudes.  'They are really like children and need to be treated as such'  8-P  The farmers never considered themselves Africans or Rhodesians, the always considered themselves Englishmen and would send their children "home" to be educated.  This fellows father left Zimbabwe because he knew that the native people had every reason to be angry, and how that anger would probably manifest itself.

It is a terrible situation for all involved, but one that was a century in the making.  As always it is the everyday people who will pay the ultimate price.

This wild rebellion of the vast black majority of former second-class citizens was to be expected. Any Rhodesian who knew what was good for him got out of dodge long ago. The ones that stayed were the ones who thought there was still money to be made in farming, diamonds etc... Neo-colonialists plain and simple. From where I'm standing at present, this is not a humanitarian crisis, it's a small problem with an easy solution. Sell what assets you have left in Zimbabwe, and move to a Commonwealth realm where you belong.

It *is* a humanitarian crisis largely because 90% of the farmland in what should be a largely fertile country has been taken from its owners, who have been unceremoniously kicked out, often at gunpoint/by threatening families.. and turned over to people who have no experience and little or no interest in farming.  It's going to stay a humanitarian disaster until they get people in to run the farms who actually know how to grow food.

It's not a crisis for the rich white minority who can afford to move out.. it's a lot of a crisis for the not-so-rich white minority who can't afford to.  And, as Danoota says, it's the majority who are paying for the politically-motivated and incredibly short-sighted removal of the farmlands from the people who knew how to run them.

It *is* a humanitarian crisis largely because 90% of the farmland in what should be a largely fertile country has been taken from its owners, who have been unceremoniously kicked out, often at gunpoint/by threatening families.. and turned over to people who have no experience and little or no interest in farming.  It's going to stay a humanitarian disaster until they get people in to run the farms who actually know how to grow food.

I understand that concern, but I think there is a huge problem with it. Since when did the white owners themselves actually work on the farms? It isn't the labourers who are being thrown out, it's the owners. Any arsehole can own a farm while the same black labourers who've been working it for decades continue to do so, business as usual. The White Man doesn't have the monopoly on ownership and management skills (though he certainly has quite the experience at it in Zimbabwe).

It's not a crisis for the rich white minority who can afford to move out.. it's a lot of a crisis for the not-so-rich white minority who can't afford to. 


You'd be surprised at some of the things people can afford when they have no choice, and for those truly in need, any of the Commonwealth realms would jump at the chance to finally welcome some English-speaking whites under any of their generous refugee packages.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying these people should be forced to leave, but that is what's happening like it or not and it was to be expected. So emigration, whether as a financial independent or as a refugee, is the obvious choice for any ex-Rhodesian who knows what's good for him before it's too late.