A judge has told Zimbabweans who profited from land confiscated from white farmers in Robert Mugabe’s land reform programme that they risk losing it unless it is put to good use.
Judge Nicholas Mathonsi made his remarks in the Harare High Court as he denied an appeal by a member of the ruling Zanu-PF party against an earlier decision to allow Heather Guild, an evicted farmer, back on to a small part of land reallocated to Fungai Chaeruika.
Judge Mathonsi said in his ruling that the lands ministry could now withdraw its offer of Ms Guild’s farm to Mr Chaeruika because he had “breached” his contract by not using the land. Mr Chaeruika, a prominent provincial supporter of Mr Mugabe, was also ordered to pay court costs.
Ms Guild’s eviction resulted in several hundred farm workers losing their jobs. She approached Joseph Msika, the late Zimbabwe vice-president, seeking permission to stay on a portion of her land, and was eventually given an official letter from the government saying she could return. She subsequently resumed vegetable cultivation, employing about 150 workers.
The enraged Mr Chaeruika went to the High Court to overturn the ruling, but this application has now been rejected. Mr Chaeruika’s only redress now is to apply to the Supreme Court.
The decision could mark a turning point in the long struggle by white farmers to be handed back their farms. In his seven-page judgment, Judge Mathonsi described failure to use land given out under the land reform programme as “scandalous”.
He said: “The policy on land reform is not recreational, neither is it designed to accord beneficiaries some pastime. It is meant to benefit those willing and able to utilise land.
“One cannot be allowed to hold on to large tracts of land they are not using simply to baby-sit an inflated ego.
“If a beneficiary is not using the land that is a breach of the conditions upon which that land is offered. It should therefore be withdrawn and given to more deserving candidates.”
A solicitor in Harare who has represented many farmers in their efforts to stay on their land said: “This was an extraordinary judgment. We don’t know if this means something or it is just one of those things, an exception to the rule, but a lot depends on it.”
At least 4,000 white farmers were evicted from their farms when President Mugabe’s government embarked on the controversial and often violent land redistribution programme in 2000. Since then, agricultural production has decreased dramatically and food shortages have continued to plague the country. Mugabe’s ZANU-PF government, however, attributes the food crisis to drought.
