Zimbabwe: Chegutu farmer laments government`s denial of land attacks

18 July, 2009 in Zimbabwe

source: SW Radio Africa
By Alex Bell
16 July 2009

A beleaguered Chegutu farmer, whose farm has been over run by land invaders working for a top ZANU PF official, has lashed out at the government for repeatedly denying that the current wave of land invasions are happening.

Ben Freeth from Mount Carmel Farm has relentlessly tried to hang on to the land that even the human rights court of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has ruled rightfully belongs to his family. Freeth’s father-in-law Mike Campbell, who he co-owns the land with, led the legal challenge in the SADC tribunal against the government last year. Campbell, and the more than 70 farmers who joined the case, walked away victorious with a ruling that declared the land ‘reform’ programme essentially discriminatory. The government was ordered to protect the farmer’s right to their land, and make compensation to those who had lost land.

But SADC has been openly defied, and the renewed offensive against the [continue reading]