THE STATE OF HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT |ZIMBABWE I 2017 Specific Cases In January 2017, two Chiredzi farmers, brothers, Jeffrey and Henry Sommer were on the verge of losing their thriving intensive crocodile farming venture in a fresh land grab spree in the Lowveld, even after they reportedly incorporated locals. The disturbances at the farm, with an annual export value of US$1 million, were threatening the future of more than 62 workers and the 23 500 reptiles kept at the farm.The Sommers were on the verge of losing their 71-hectare farm after one Gilbert Nyasha invaded the farm, armed with an offer letter he received in 2012 and therefore one wonders why it took Nyasha 5 years to produce his offer letter and demand the eviction of the Sommers. All this mayhem came at a time when the Sommers had already lost an initial 100 hectares of their farm which had been gazetted by the government and the two were only left with the 71 hectares that Nyasha was now coming after as well. 55 In June 2017, the military and several ZANU-PF politicians invaded Blackfordby College of Agriculture one of the best agricultural training institutes in Southern Africa, amid concerns that equipment worth thousands of dollars could be seized from the tertiary institution. The farm measuring 1 350 hectares, on which the agricultural college is situated in Concession, Mashonaland Central province, is owned by Tetrad Investment Bank which is under provisional judicial management. 56 On 30 October 2017, police officers raided and demolished Mazowe villagers’ homesteads at Manzou Farm in Mashonaland Central province without a court order to justify the forced evictions. During the forced evictions, the ZRP officers destroyed homesteads, household furniture and the villagers’ crops including maize grain and groundnuts. In destroying their homesteads and evicting them, ZRP officers violated the farmers’ fundamental rights including their right to property. However, on a positive development on 2 March 2018, the villagers were awarded more than US$30 000 as compensation by the courts. The villagers were represented by ZLHR. In November 2017, ZANU-PF party activists reportedly invaded a white-owned commercial dairy farm just outside Chinhoyi town.This invasion came after former President Mugabe, who was seeking re-election in polls due in 2018, urged his supporters in June 2017 to grab all the few remaining whiteowned commercial farms in the countryside to pave way for Zimbabweans who did not have access to land. 57 In December 2017, it was reported that, four out of 17 farmers resettled in 1989 in Mpapa in Mwenezi under a Triangle Ltd (now Tongaat Hewlett) programme, received letters of eviction. They were ordered to wind off business at their 50-hectare farms by the end of December 2017. The four had already written to the former Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Douglas Mombeshora, contesting their evictions before the change of government in November 2017. According to the eviction letters reported on by Newsday Weekender dated October 16 and signed by Boaz Vurayayi the District Lands Officer for Mwenezi, Shane Warth was being ordered to wind off farming activities on Lot 12 of Lot 15 of NRA by December 31 to make way for Solicitor Mutendi. 58 The letters stated that the farms were gazetted in 2017 for compulsory acquisition by the Lands and Rural Resettlement Ministry on behalf of the Government of Zimbabwe and were now State land. Commercial Farmers Union Report on ‘Chiredzi croc farm invaded’ 26 January, 2017 www.cfuzim.org/~cfuzimb/index.php/newspaper.../7755-chiredzi-croc-farm-invaded 56 The Independent newspaper ‘Military, ZANU-PF bigwigs invade Tetrad college farm’ 09 June 2017, https://www.theindependent.co.zw/2017/06/09/military-zanu-pf-bigwigs-invade-tetrad-college-farm/ 57 News 24 ‘Why are you sympathizing with the white man?’ 03 November 2017, https://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/why-are-you-sympathising-with-the-white-man-mugabes-zanu-p 58 Newsday ‘White farmers still being kicked out of Zimbabwe farms’ 30 December 2017, https://www.newsday.co.zw/2017/12/white-farmers-still-being-kicked-out-of-zim-farms/ 55 45