Messages From Zimbabwe

Dear Friends and Family,

This is a copy of a report made to the South African Ambassador… that which we feared came upon us – another victim of the land invasion in Zimbabwe. Why the SA Ambassador? – Gavin and Kirk are both SA registered citizens and SA is part of the SADC group and just a few weeks ago SA and Zim signed an agreement in favour of the SA citizen farmers in Zim.

A friend (Kenyon Ziehl) was kicked off 3 weeks ago, then it was Raymond Finaughty on 24th Dec, then us and this morning they started at Dolph du Toit – there are 8 names mentioned – not good at all – the atmosphere among farmers is very thick – who is next?

Footage of our ordeal should be out worldwide in a matter of days…we had someone with a camera throughout the packing and the main thugs coming in and out of the home – Kirk had the worse time as he had the youth marching in and out as they pleased.

There will be names some of you will recognise…

The event started taking place here on the 24th of December 2009. We were at Mr Finaughty’s house helping him pack when Mr Graham Ross from Headlands contacted us and told us that we were targeted to be removed from the farm the next morning (Christmas Day). Fortunately nothing happened on the 25th, 26th and 27th. On the evening of the 28th, a young black man drove up to our gate on a motorcycle, saying that we are next and that they will be coming the next day (29th). The same young man and two other youth arrived on the farm on the 29th. They were heavily intoxicated, threatening that they have come to claim their farm and that we have to move off. Throughout the evening they drove up and down between the two houses causing a lot of commotion.

The next morning (30th) the 3 youth, stopped our workers from performing any work on the farm and sent them home. Mr Paul Grobbler, a family friend, met our lawyer, Mr Chigadza, at the Rusape Police station at 08h00. Mr Chigadza had a copy of the High Court Order that we received, stating that Mrs Agatha Mugomba, is legally in contempt of court should she return to the farm at any given time, which he handed to the Officer in Charge. The officer proceeded to inform them that this is a political issue and that they cannot get involved as he would lose his job should they intervene. We received word from Mr Finaughty that a team from JOMIC (Joint Monitoring & Implementation Committee – a combination of MDC T and M and ZANU PF) were on their way from Harare. During the morning the youth left the farm. The delegation arrived here at about 15h00 yesterday afternoon. We shared everything that has happened here at Msasa Farm with them in as much detail as possible. The JOMIC delegation left the farm at approximately 16h30. Soon after they left, the three youth returned to the farm. They had been at the local beer hall and were highly intoxicated again. We managed to contact the JOMIC delegation that was almost at the tollgate on their way back to Harare. They managed to turn back and returned to Msasa farm to find the three youth here. The JOMIC team proceeded to talk to the three youth to find out what their intentions were.

During the talks, Mrs Oppah Muchinguri (ZANU PF) was harassed by the three youth. A Silver Toyota Prado approached the scene. Mr Didymus Mutasa got out of the vehicle and greeted everyone that was present. Talks between him, the JOMIC delegation and us continued for a while. The talks became heated, at which stage Mr Mutasa proceeded towards his vehicle to leave. Mrs Muchinguri had a long discussion with Mr Mutasa after which he left. The delegation voiced their disappointment towards Mr Mutasa’s way of addressing the situation. They returned to Harare shortly after that. The youth remained on the farm. Shortly after sunset, the same Silver Toyota Prado drove up to our front gate, stood there for a while, and left the farm again. We noticed that the youth had left, but they returned just after 22h45 last night. One of the youth walked past the front gate straight to the transformer and switched off the main circuit breaker supplying our complex with electricity. We sat awake in total darkness last night, monitoring every movement by the youth. They calmed down just after 12 pm last night. At 04h15 one of the youth started driving around on the motorcycle again. At 07h15 the youth once again stated that we are not to start with work on the farm and that we have to negotiate with Mrs Mugomba about moving off the farm. We agreed to see her. She arrived here on Msasa farm at approximately 10h00 in Mr Mutasa’s Prado. Mr Mutasa and another lady accompanied Mrs Mugomba. My son and I went into my farm office with the abovementioned people. Mrs Mugomba was very straightforward and said that we have to get off the farm by 18h00 today. Mr Mutasa suggested that they go and discuss the issue and that they will only communicate with my son Kirk. During the meeting a person by the name Vashco arrived at the office as well. He is well known in the area for being the person who arranges all the youth to intimidate and cause chaos on the farms during the invasions. They all left peacefully. Later during the morning, Kirk got a phone call from Mr Mutasa stating that they had drawn up a proposal for us to consider and that Vashco will be brining it out to the farm himself.

Vashco arrived here on the farm just before 13h00. We met them down by the workshop. When we arrived there, Mrs Mugomba as well as two young gentlemen who did not want to disclose their identity or where they were from accompanied Vashco. They handed us a 3 page handwritten document with the conditions they were proposing. They eventually made it clear that if we don’t sign the document they would rally more youth in town and come and make life difficult for us. We managed to phone Mr Graham Ross who drove here from Headlands to help with the negotiations. He spent considerable time trying to reach an agreement. At about 15h00, Vashco and Mrs Mugomba told us that they give us till Saturday afternoon 15h00 to vacate the farm. The two gentlemen walked around our premises, making us open all our sheds, storerooms, workshops etc. The made an inventory of all the farm equipment including all 5 tractors, 4 trailers, 4 water carts, workshop tools, generators including our brand new 30 KVA, all farms implements including ploughs, harrows and irrigation pipes etc. They then continued to tell us that we could move our furniture and household goods, but that the rest belonged to Mrs Mugomba and that we could not take any of it.

Currently we are in the process of frantically arranging people to assist us in getting our goods off the farm. My son Kirk, and myself are both South African Citizens, and appeal for assistance in any form as soon as possible. We are desperate and we are not getting any assistance from the police force or any other source. Mrs Woest went with their lawyer to the sheriff of court. She paid him US $200 to activate the restraining High Court Order against Mrs Mugomba. The sheriff of court could not go to the farm as there were no police officers to accompany him out there.  Should we fail to meet the deadline, they are threatening us with violence.

My SA ID Number is: – 622/000633 issued 7 Feb 62

My son Kirk Woest’s ID: – 820521 5230 084

Yours truly,

Gavin Woest

2/1/10

From Mina -

Because I went to the cop station and someone there informed the youth I was there they confronted Gavin that night – calling him to the gate – and said ‘your wife was at the cop station in such and such a car and because of that your time has been brought forward by 24 hours. I felt terrible putting more pressure on my family.

1/1/10

At 7 am people started arriving to help pack up all our household goods. Kirk had a labour force team packing with him until 11.30 pm on 31st Dec so he was more ready than us.

It is such a long story but by 11 am we felt the tension rise to a point where we decided to not hang around longer than necessary.  We managed to get all our household goods off which is now stored in various places in our town.

Sadly!!!!!!!!! Gavin was not allowed to touch any of his workshop tools – my heart aches every time I think of it – it is what he could make a livelihood from, but the thugs decided differently. We will be perusing an avenue which could possibly allow him to go to the farm under Police escort (if they decide to do their job properly???) and get some of the tools off. The carpentry tools were also not allowed to be touched. They also swiped Kirk’s 250 motorbike.

We are living in a little complex in our town hoping for some direction to get some work in Harare… that is the thought today but tomorrow something else could come up. We leaving our options open.

Wishing you all a wonderful 2010 – we may have started off on a negative but believe it will climb to a very high positive.

Keep well

Lots of love and God bless

Gavin and Mina – Kirk as well.

(Source: via email)

Multinational Swiss food giant Nestle on Tuesday sought to allay fears that it had resumed purchasing “blood milk” from a farm owned by the wife of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, insisting that it was maintaining its stance of sourcing milk “exclusively from contracted farmers.”

The Swiss-based company, which courted controversy last year after it emerged that it was the main buyer of milk from a dairy farm owned by Grace Mugabe, denied reports that it had apparently agreed to a deal that could see it once again indirectly buying milk from Gushungo Dairy Estate.

A Nestle spokesperson said that it no longer had any direct or indirect ties with Gushungo farm.

“Nestle reiterates its commitment to source milk exclusively from its contracted farmers,” the spokesperson said.

Nestle Zimbabwe shut down its Harare factory in December following weeks of pressure from pro-Mugabe militias and empowerment groups to resume purchases of milk from a dairy farm owned by the president’s wife.

It only resumed operations last week after an assurance by Industry Minister Welshman Ncube that milk from Gushungo Dairy Estate would now be absorbed by local processors and not the Swiss-based firm.

Nestle stopped buying from the dairy farm in October but not before an international protest by human rights groups which triggered calls for a worldwide boycott of its products.

The Zimbabwean First Lady reportedly gained control of the dairy as a beneficiary of her husband’s controversial and internationally criticised land-reform programme.

The decision to stop milk purchases from Mugabe’s Gushungo Dairy Estate did not go down well with local indigenous pressure groups led by the pro-Mugabe Affirmative Action Group (AAG) which said the move was tantamount to the company imposing sanctions on the country.

Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere and the AAG last month led a group of protesters that allegedly threatened Nestle with closure unless it resumed the milk purchases.

(Source)

Installation of the fiber optic cable which will link Zimbabwe with the rest of the world should be complete by March this year in time to enable visitors during the 2010 FIFA World Cup to enjoy reliable and fast Internet connections, according to ITC Minister Nelson Chamisa.

He said here Wednesday that the government was determined to ensure that Zimbabwe benefited fully from the world soccer showcase to be held in neighbouring South Africa from June 11 to July 11 this year.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti had made available 5.0 million USD in the 2010 National Budget for installation of the fiber optic cable.

“The fiber optic cable connection is expected to respond to problems of Internet connectivity which has made services expensive compared with elsewhere in the region,” said Chamisa.

He added that the fiber optic cable connection was the way to go since satellite facilities were expensive and the country rented them from other Internet providers.

He said the Zimbabwe government, through his ministry, wanted to ensure that Internet technology was affordable and accessible to everyone.

In his 2010 Budget, Biti also announced duty-free importation of ICT related products, with the objective of making them cheaper and accessible to everyone.

IT experts and service providers have hailed government’s efforts to improve Internet connectivity, saying it would ensure that the country moved with trends the world over.

Countries such as Kenya have already started benefiting from the 17,000-km cable which runs along the east coast of Africa, creating a digital superhighway that links South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya with Europe and Asia.

(Source)

Tension between the MDC-T and Zanu-PF has reached pitched levels in Mashonaland Central after the MDC recruited 56 Municipal police from the civilian population instead of members of the National Youth Service notoriously known as Green Bombers recommended by Zanu-PF.

This angered President Mugabe’s Minister of Local Government, Ignatius Chombo who quickly moved in last week and gave several directives in complete defiance of the MDC-T which won the council elections.

MDC-T has since sent its representative Hatfield MP Mr Tapiwa Mashakada to investigate and come up with recommendations. He is expected to directly communicate his findings to the party’s national   executive and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Secret documents in the hands of The ZimDiaspora show that Zanu-PF knew there were vacancies for 56 municipal police officers and had brought forward a list of “green bombers”.

The National Youth Service has been condemned in the West and in Africa for gross human rights violations on behalf of the ZANU-PF party. Within Zimbabwe the graduates of the service are known pejoratively as green bombers after the fatigue uniforms they wear.

As part of revenge for the MDC’s refusal to hire green bombers Minister Chombo set up a vengeful commission of inquiry accusing MDC councillors of various allegations including “mismanagement” of council affairs and abuse of council funds.

Confirming the onslaught by Zanu-PF, Bindura MDC-T mayor councilor Wakatama (42) said Zanu-PF was working flat out to discredit his council and party through covert and overt means following the hiring of the 56 municipal officers.

He said Minister Chombo started of my using Zanu-PF’s provincial governor Advocate Dinha whom he accused of meddling with council affairs when in fact Zanu-PF lost the elections.

Recently, Dinha is reportedly having stopped Save-the-Children UK from distributing food to the vulnerable accusing them of failing to observe protocol.

“Governor Advocate Dinha has been fighting us at every turn and throwing spanners in everything good we do. All this started after we refused to hire 56 green bombers. We cannot hire a group of youth   that is known to have committed huma rights violations, that would taint our council,” he said.

“All this tension resulted from our refusal to recruit 56 green bombers. What we did, instead, we recruited ordinary school leavers with Five ‘O’ Levels but this did not imptress Minister Chombo who actually called to tell me that we should have recruited only those with National Youth Service Certificates as was government regulation,” he said.

Wakatama said following this development, Chombo called him again and told him that he was sending a three member team to investigate the town’s preparedness in the event of a cholera outbreak.

“We have also been falsely accused of allowing services to deteriorate, yet ever since we took office we have done a lot of progress. In fact, residents are happy with the improvements made so far. For the first time in ten years council bought a new ambulance, utility vehicles and clinics have drugs and  Governor Dinha and his Zanu-PF friends still has the audacity to accuse us” he said.

The team was to be made up of Chombo himself, Energy Minister, Engineer Mudzuri and Water Development Minister, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo. Surprisingly only Chombo came unannounced on 27 December 2009.

He called a meeting with the Governor, some religious leaders from Kunonga Anglican faction and Zanu-PF appointed special interest councilors in the council chambers while the MDC were not present yet the local mayor is MDC.

Then, on Tuesday December 29, 2009 Chombo gave 14 directives which included awarding ZAOGA church 500 hectares of land.

The council was also instructed to meet the inquiry costs while the commission’s pogramme exclude elected MDC-T councilors.

Zanu-PF supporters in the area asked Chombo to investigate the hiring of 56 municipal police officers whom they claim were recruited from the MDC ranks instead of its  National Youth Service graduates.

Efforts to get comment from Mashonaland Central Governor Advocate Dinha were fruitless as his mobile was continuously unreachable.

Some MDC-T councilors said that they had received threats from Zanu pf supporters who warned them that their days in council were numbered.

“A group of Zanu Pf supporters came to my house chanting slogans, toyi toying and kongonya dancing and told me that my time as a councilor had come to an end. That was a few days before we heard about the commission of inquiry.We don’t know what will happen as this is purely politically motivated.”said  Rindai Muchemwa, the youngest councilor in Zimbabwe at 21.

(Source)

Political turmoil is likely to fester for months to come, stunting investment, prolonging an aid freeze and wilting green shoots of economic recovery that were sprouting.

A broad-based solution to the 11-month long crisis looks increasingly unlikely in the near future after President Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) seems intent on rolling into action the December 2009 congress resolutions to trash the global political agreement and staunchly refuse to implement terms of a power-sharing deal.

A political commentator, Ronald Shumba said the balance of power was in Mugabe’s favour, and he appeared to be in no hurry to negotiate.

“It’s not a question of Maputo failing. It is just part of a long bargaining process,” Shumba said this week.

“Mugabe doesn’t need to give too much too quickly with the army behind him. They will just offer token gestures.”

Prior to the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) meeting in Maputo, Mugabe showed signs of seeing reason to implement fully the power-sharing pact. But by the time of his December congress, the deeply troubled leader was on his old turf, saying a vehement no to any resolution of the outstanding issues with his arch-opponents.

“Zanu (PF), as the party of revolution and the people’s vanguard, shall not allow the security forces of Zimbabwe to be the subject of any negotiation for a so called ‘security sector reform’ that is based on patent misrepresentations of Zimbabwe’s heroic history and for the mere purpose of weakening the state so that it can be easily overthrown,” said one of the Zanu (PF) congress resolutions.

Significantly, the party resolved to “extricate itself” from its liaison with the MDC which it branded “ideologically incompatible” so as to “retain its mantle as the only dominant and ascendant political party that is truly representative and determined to safeguard the aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe.”

Southern African nations have been accused of being too soft on Mugabe and his party and has dismally failed to ensure implementation of a pact which the regional bloc brokered.

The negotiators are not due to meet again until mid-January.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s MDC party has slammed the continued hold up in fully implementing the pact.

“As MDC we are expecting the negotiating team to meet and finalise on the unfinished business of implementing the outstanding issues,” MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said. “Our wish is to have the matter concluded as soon as possible so that we can start focusing on the bread and butter issues that are affecting the people of Zimbabwe.”

Chamisa said he hoped outstanding issues had to be referred to SADC for arbitration “so that we move ahead with the business of the inclusive government.”

The fast economic turnaround ushered in by the use of multiple foreign currencies and the abandonment of the inflation-prone Zimbabwe dollar has benefited all citizens: more and more people in rural areas have shrugged off poverty; urban residents are becoming better off.

But analysts are warning that failure to implement the pact fully could see the country sliding back to instability.

More than 70 percent of the budget is donor funded. Several major donors including the International Monetary Fund, the United States and European Union have frozen aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars in development finance, and are demanding full implementation of the power-sharing pact before they bankroll the administration.
Others believe the popular MDC leader will simply hope to limp through to the next presidential election, which is scheduled for next year under the terms of the power-sharing deal.

“Morgan will be thinking he’s just got to get through this, hold elections and count on people to have him form an exclusive MDC government,” said one diplomatic source.

There are understood to be efforts afoot to unite the two MDC formations before elections to form a powerful front against Mugabe.

(Source)

Zimbabwe‘s political rivals have agreed some outstanding issues of a power-sharing deal, but the pace of negotiations is slow, a South African official mediating in the talks said on Tuesday.

President Robert Mugabe and long-time rival Morgan Tsvangirai, now prime minister, formed a unity government last year in February after disputed elections, but the coalition has been hobbled by disputes over power-sharing.

Lindiwe Zulu, international relations advisor to South African President Jacob Zuma, said while South Africa was not happy with the pace of talks, there was progress on some issues.

“I don’t think that we should be talking of escalating conflict at this point in time. We are not saying that we are happy with the speed at which they are working but we think there are a number of things they’ve agreed upon,” Sisulu told South African Talk Radio 702.

South Africa is mediating in the Zimbabwe negotiations and Zimbabwean media reports say Africa‘s biggest economy wants all outstanding issues resolved before it hosts the soccer World Cup in June.

Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in October “disengaged” from cabinet meetings with Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, accusing it of being an “unreliable partner” but rejoined after mediation by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Mugabe and Tsvangirai are haggling over the appointment of provincial governors and the veteran leader’s refusal to swear in Tsvangirai ally Roy Bennett as deputy agriculture minister.

The 85-year-old president has also refused to sack allies he appointed as central bank governor and attorney general without consulting Tsvangirai.

Mugabe says the MDC should call off Western sanctions against his party and ask its backers in the West to shut down what he calls pirate radio stations broadcasting into Zimbabwe from the United States and Britain.

(Source)

Unending ownership disputes with the efforts international advocacy groups against so-called “conflict diamonds” may yet undermine Finance Minister, Tendai Biti’s hopes of using revenues from the controversial Marange diamond fields to boost the country’s economic development.

When announcing the Government’s new economic blue-print, Minister Biti said the formalisation mining arrangements at the Chiadzwa diamond fields near the Eastern Border city of Mutare, should benefit the country and send positive signals to international investors over the credibility of the government’s mining policies.

The Zimbabwe government recently moved to end chaotic informal exploitation of the diamond fields by facilitating joint ventures between the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and two private companies.

However another company with prior claims to the fields, African Consolidated Resources (ACR) immediately sought relief in the courts precipitating a series of applications and counter applications between it and the joint venture partners which remain unresolved.

And in a move whose effect could only be to add to the legal disputes, the Government’s mining commissioner recently indicated that he intended to cancel the claims of ACR and other companies in the area with effect from the 25th of this month because they “were improperly pegged and registered on land that had been reserved against prospecting and pegging”.

However ACR and other affected companies can appeal the decision to the Minister of Mines and Mining Development and, failing that, take the matter to the High Court.

Again, as if this were not enough legal trouble, local inhabitants targeted for relocation by the Government to make way for the mining operations are also in the court seeking an order to halt their removal until they are properly and adequately compensated for their losses.

Meanwhile, diamond traders, human rights organisations and other advocacy groups continue to campaign for a ban on Zimbabwe diamond exports over allegations of rights abuses.

Ingle & Rhode, the UK‘s principal retailer of ethical jewellery and custom engagement rings produced using “conflict-free” diamonds and “fair trade gold”, became the latest firm to call for a ban on Zimbabwean diamond exports.

“Continuing to allow exports of Zimbabwean diamonds in such circumstances would make a mockery of the Kimberley Process – which was established in 2003 to assure consumers that the diamonds they were purchasing were not funding conflicts or human rights abuses – that is meant to avoid just such practices from occurring,” the company said in a press statement.

(Source)