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Zimbabweans 23rd
August 2002 All of us
are visitors in Gods country and all of us historically entered Zimbabwe through
different ways and means, that the Bushmen who are now extinct were here before
the Black people and that the Asians in their different sects and religions, the
White's in their different sects and religions, and the union of all three the
coloured people now make up the population of Zimbabwe is fact, and an
irreversible act of God. Each an
every one of us have rights as people and all choose a path to walk along, every
one of us have had some form of religious teachings and cultural up bringing to
know the difference between right and wrong. Politics
drive a nation and form the Government. Good Governance and Democracy develop a
country and its people prosper and poverty is eradicated. Bad Governance and
Oppression destroy a country and its people committed forever to poverty. I have
chosen my path to be involved in the politics of our nation to bring about
change for good governance in the interest of the Nation and its people I would
term myself a PATRIOT. I am a Christian and believe in the word of God by which
I try to live my life. I as have many Zimbabweans through the decades,
sacrificed personally for my beliefs. That I am
white does not make me above anyone else or too special to risk my life and
family and or worldly possessions to stand by what is right with the majority of
Zimbabweans. I was
humbly elected by the people of Chimanimani to represent them in Parliament, I
knew full well the ramifications involved taking on a repressive ZANU PF regime,
as did the people who voted me in and we as a district have equally been
targeted and harassed for our beliefs I am not seen as a white commercial farmer
but as a fellow Zimbabwean, and as long as the people want to use me to
represent them for nationalism change and good governance I will never go back
no amount of intimidation oppression or threats will work I moved
around the country in the white commercial farming and business circles speaking
to and advising people to commit themselves as nationalists and stand by for
what is right for the nation and people of Zimbabwe, it was necessary to do this
as for 20 years ZANU PF had through intimidation made whites believe that they
should never get involved in politics, my message was do you belong, is this
your country do you owe the country and the people anything if so contribute in
any way you can for a positive change for better governance and democracy. I am proud
to say that the response was overwhelming and people committed themselves and
took a stand as Zimbabweans, there is no doubt that this commitment very
definitely played a very crucial role in assisting the opposition get as far as
it has in Zimbabwe today. The current Zimbabwean Government is comprised of 2 political parties The Ruling Party and the Opposition, the Opposition having been formed by committed nationalists, the majority former members of the ruling party. The Ruling
Party has been in power for 22 years, and history tells us that they have not
dealt very kindly with any form of opposition and successfully destroyed the
Zimbabwe African Peoples Union through the Gukurahundi era and by sucking them
into a Government of National Unity and destroying them as an opposition force.
They then had a 2/3rds majority in Parliament and proceeded to change the
constitution a number of times and rule the country as ZANU PF (PVT) LTD. It suited
ZANU PF (PVT) LTD to use all people of Zimbabwe across all racial divides to
enrich them as long as they did not get involved in Politics. The same
people formed the opposition, which encompassed all racial groups, and ZANU PF
(PVT) LTD was seriously challenged and unless they did something drastic their
hold on power and enrichment was about end. There is
absolutely no doubt and the facts are there for all to see the Land issue and
Race issue was evilly used by ZANU PF to destroy any support for the opposition
and destroy or intimidate any body linked to them, this is self evident in the
referendum to change the constitution. The
unfolding and continuous nightmare still exists what is happening to white
commercial farmers and businesses is happening to millions of rural and urban
Zimbabweans who have dared stand up to ZANU PF (PVT) LTD to say whites should
never get involved in politics but should stand by and watch evil prevail as
long as they are left alone to make money has to be a supremacist/expatriate
attitude, everything that anybody has made from the soil or labour of Zimbabwe
is owed to that country and its people if all those that have made huge fortunes
from our Nation had utilised some of those resources and energy to assist the
majority of Zimbabweans out of poverty ZANU PF would never have been able to
oppress the people as it has. The facts
of the land is that anyone who has any contact with the rural folk would know
that to them land is a minor issue, the majority of rural folk have land, the
real issue is poverty. The majority of rural Zimbabweans in congested rural
areas are living in abstract poverty because government has never delivered and
they are worse off today than they have ever been, the most poverty stricken
being those resettled in the last 20 years for no other reason other than they
have had no support or infrastructure, there are a small number of success
stories being those done with the right support and infrastructure given. A good
example of a successful resettlement programme is the Nyamakati Resettlement
Scheme between Karoi and Makuti assisted by the German Government the scheme's
success is self evident, virgin bush was reverted into a thriving agrarian
centre economically empowering people. The reason
for this success was that it was done with the right support and infrastructure,
and because it was virgin bush it required committed hard working farmers and
not political opportunist's seeing a thriving successful farming enterprise
producing for the nation, forcefully acquiring it to turn into a broken down
shambles, and for this there is proof one only needs to visit the very fertile
Glendale farming area to see the farms of ministers and Vice Presidents lying
derelict. How many
congested rural folk have been resettled, where are the Chiefs involvement in
resettling their people? How many Chefs multiply own farms. Have resettled
people produced anything of what the properties they have taken over produced,
surely agrarian land reform you do not take away productive land and make it un
productive, my own property is a prime example and is a microcosm of Zimbabwe as
a whole. In May
2000 during the lead up to parliamentary elections my property was illegally
besieged by ZANU PF activists. They occupied the property, assaulted and
threatened my family and employees, stole and abused all my vehicles, irrigation
equipment, killed and butchered 8 head of cattle, broke into looted and occupied
my residence damages amounted to then forty million Zimbabwe dollars all in the
name of land invasion, these people were then arrested after the elections and
we returned to normal farming operations. We had
ploughed disked and limed ready to plant 50 Ha of Coffee and 50 Ha of maize. The
land prep and inputs for this costing ZWD 936423.00 a coffee nursery ready to
plant out at a cost of ZWD 360750.00 all this replaced by a fine crop of weeds. DDF
tractors arrived and a total of 48 plots were ploughed. 12 over land that had
already been prepared and the rest in Giant Rhodes grass pastures that had been
fertilised for hay to harvested for winter-feed. Of the 48 plots ploughed only
24 were planted and of the it was difficult to see the maize for weeds if a
total of 20 tones of maize were reaped it would have been a generous estimate
most being sold to my workers on the farm as our 100 tones stock of ration maize
had been impounded by the GMB using armed soldiers to plunder our storage shed
and load GMB trucks to date I have not received any payment. We would
have yielded in the region of 400 to 500 tones of maize and the coffee would
have returned 150 tones of coffee in 2003 grossing USD 200 000 foreign exchange
into our reserve bank. I was
prevented using ½ of the farm where my Giant Rhodes grass pastures are for 1200
head of cattle ZWD 2 800 000 in fertilisers were put on the pastures, these
lands have been barely used by anyone else and I was prevented from mowing and
bailing hay by armed soldiers, we were also prevented using the paddocks on the
mountains and that grazing has become rank and useless from lying idle, I run a
beef herd of 1200 head, this last week I had the first 12 deaths from poverty
and we still have the winter to get through, do I stand and watch the cattle die
while half the farm has untouched grazing. Charleswood
Estate was granted Export Processing Zone Status and issued an E.P.Z. License,
which fall under the EPZ Act. This was for a state of the arts Coffee Mill and
has two external investors involved, who were guaranteed no state interference
through the Export Processing Zone Act. There are two joint Zimbabwe Investment
Centre projects on the farm both of them with external partners, the one Mawenje
lodge a 12 bed tourist lodge, the other a contracting company with considerable
investment in contracting machinery both invested in Zimbabwe with guarantees
from Government both projects now at a stand idle because of ZANU PF (PVT) LTD. On
Charleswood Estate we employ 200 permanent employee's and 1200 contract/seasonal
workers run 1200 head of cattle, 50 ha of maize 210 ha of coffee and 150 ha of
pastures an annual foreign exchange earnings of 1 500 000 US when in full
production and all this to be destroyed for nothing in exchange. This is
what is happening nation wide there are no landless being resettled most are
state employee's ordered onto farms to loot and take what they want with
guarantees of no repercussions and ZANU PF have hidden the truth with the
assistance of the farming bodies mentioned above. No
Zimbabwean in his right mind would oppose any form of Agrarian Land reform that
empowers people economically keeping the land productive or better still making
it more productive. Can anyone
in their right mind advocate working with the government of the day ZANU PF
(PVT) LTD, and be part and parcel to the destruction of our nation and the
severe hardships that will follow I challenge anyone to be able to say "I
did what I could in any little way that I could to stop the destruction to our
Nation. "ZANU
PF (PVT) LTD WILL GO!!!! ANY LITTLE THING WE CAN DO WILL ACCELERATE THEIR DEMISE
AND RETURN ZIMBABWE TO PEOPLES POWER FOR THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE HELPING OUR
COUNTRY MOVE FORWARD. UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL. Roy
Bennett - Member of Parliament for Chimanimani (MDC) Zimbabwe |
