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“It’s been a few days since the eviction began and we still can’t find the words to articulate the feelings we felt seeing our 22-year-old house literally pulled out of the door and loaded into vehicles in a matter of hours.”
These are the words of Martin Grobler, a commercial farmer in Zimbabwe, speaking to TimesLIVE about the eviction from his land on Friday. It came a month after the Zimbabwean government signed a $ 3.5 billion settlement to compensate white commercial farmers who were evicted from their land two decades ago.
Grobler, 63, and his wife Debbie were given 24 hours to vacate their Protea Valley farm in Ruwa, 22 kilometers southeast of Harare.
The new landowner, Ivy Rupindi, a Land Ministry official, arrived at the farm armed with an eviction order and a police escort.
Grobler’s farm covers 445 ha with 80 ha of arable land and 250 head of cattle. Its 105 employees produce cured tobacco outdoors.
Evicted 20 years ago
The couple rented the farm because they were among 4,500 white farmers evicted under then-President Robert Mugabe’s land reform policy in 2000.
“We were renting the farm to the original owner of the property title. After the nationalization of agricultural land in Zimbabwe, we followed the proper channels to acquire an offer letter for the farm from the government, with the consent of our owner. When our offer letter was approved and ready, the officials demanded $ 100,000 as a bribe, which we were unable to pay, ”Grobler said.
Rupindi says that she is the rightful owner of the property, which was assigned to her by the government after she applied for the land and received an offer letter.
“We are deeply saddened. Now we are staying with our daughter and our future is unclear. Our belongings are distributed among the people who helped us move. We will have to rebuild our lives step by step and our future day by day, ”said Grobler.
Stories of farm evictions are familiar in Zimbabwe.
‘I left with nothing’
Dave Conolly, 60, a commercial farmer now living in Bulawayo, said he lost his 2,000-hectare Centenary farm in Figtree, 50 km from Bulawayo, two decades ago.
“I did dairy farms. He had 600 head of cattle and 40ha of vegetables for the Bulawayo market. We supply the local market with meat, milk and vegetables. In the end I left my farm with nothing, ”Conolly said.
More than 4,500 white commercial farmers lost their land during violent agricultural evictions in 2000.
Another white commercial farmer who was evicted from his 1,500ha Aqua Farm in Doma district of northeastern Zimbabwe spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety and did not want to jeopardize the chances of recovering his original farm.
He said that in 2001 both his house and that of his parents were burned down, his personal property was stolen and his crops were attacked by invaders.
“It is the most chaotic and counterproductive land reform program. They gave us three months to leave the farm. The only things I left the farm with were my bakkie, my wife, and two dogs. We lost everything and had to start over, ”he said.
TimesLIVE
