The Brutality of Zimbabwe

5^th October 2002

PORT ELIZABETH - Janet Nienaber of Jeffrey's Bay in the Eastern Cape was on Thursday still in the dark about her elderly parents' fate after they were forcibly removed from their farm in Zimbabwe on Wednesday.

Nienaber told Radio Algoa News that her parents, both 76, were arrested on Wednesday on their farm between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls.

She said the Zimbabwean police planned to jail her parents but allowed them, after prolonged arguments, to stay in a local hotel.

Nienaber still does not know where her parents are and if they are safe.

"The last I heard was from a cousin who was on her way to Bulawayo to pick up my mother," Nienaber said.

She said her parents were served with an eviction order in December, but the order was reversed recently. Her parents' farm borders a nature reserve and is part of a conservancy.

"They have hunting rights and bring in a lot of forex".

The police arrived on the farm on Wednesday to arrest the couple.

Nienaber's mother, Ruth Chatam, was dragged from the house and shackled to a police vehicle. She broke a hand in the process.

"She is 76 years old. Why did they have to shackle her?"

The police then returned to the house for Nienaber's father, Jim Chatam.

"My dad has a heart condition and my mum fought desperately to keep them from harming him."

She said her mother begged the police not to put them in jail, because her father regularly has to take medication after meals.

"They don't get food in jail. My brother was in jail and he didn't get a scrap."

The police told Mrs Chatam that she could buy her own food in prison.

"She asked them what she would use; washers? He told her she could use her watch to get money."

Nienaber said the police eventually relented and escorted her parents to a hotel.

She said it is not only her parents she is worried about. Farmworkers are suffering as a result of the evictions.

"I find it disgusting that so many farmworkers become homeless and unemployed due to the evictions. The human rights violations are absolutely gross.

She said chances are slim that her parents will come to South Africa.

"They're old, they want to stay in Zimbabwe."

She said they should be safe in a town.

"But for how long we don't know. At the moment it is the white farmers, when will they turn on the white businessmen? We just don't know."

Natal Witness (SA)