Zimbabwe farmer Martin Grobler evicted weeks after compensation

A Zimbabwean commercial farmer has been evicted just weeks weeks after a ‘historic’ deal to compensate whites for previous land confiscation was announced.

Zimbabwean commercial farmers prepare land for a potato crop at Lesbury Estates farm in Headlands, east of the Zimbabwean capital Harare. Picture: AFP

A commercial farmer has been evicted from his land in Zimbabwe six weeks after the government announced a “historic” deal with dispossessed whites to compensate them for previous confiscation of their land.

Martin Grobler, 63, and his wife Debbie were given hours to vacate their home by the new owner, an official from the lands ministry, who arrived with a sheriff, a court order and a lorry full of police. The fate of the couple’s 120 employees, planted fields and 250 head of cattle were thrown into doubt by the eviction which came as a “total shock”, Mr Grobler said.

He had felt “more secure” since President Mnangagwa hailed a dollars 3.5 billion compensation package signed with farmers’ leaders in late July as “a symbol of our commitment to constitutionalism, the respect of the rule of law and property rights”.

The new owner of Protea Valley Farm has been named as Ivy Rupindi, an official at the lands ministry, who was given an “offer letter” for the property some years ago. Dewa Mavhinga, from Human Rights Watch, said local reports suggested Ms Rupindi was connected to the president “and has claimed she is his daughter”. Certainly, the deployment of large numbers of police and a sheriff “suggested she is very well connected”.

Mr Grobler, the third generation of his family to work Zimbabwe’s land, told The Times that he and his wife “are now pretty much at the mercy of everybody’s favours. We are most concerned about our staff who have been left in shock and fear.” They were planning to plant 120 acres of maize and transplant 120 acres of tobacco seedlings this week, he added.

They had rented the farm, 25 miles from Harare, since they were among 4,500 white farmers evicted under Robert Mugabe’s chaotic land redistribution policy, which began in 2000. Shortly after ousting Mr Mugabe in late 2017, Mr Mnangagwa said he wanted white farmers to return to their land, which has mostly been left fallow.

The government said it was “aware” of the eviction, but was “trying to establish the facts behind the matter”. Tendai Biti, a senior opposition MP, said it was “a typical tactic” of Mr Mnangagwa’s government to distance itself from actions that associate it with the Mugabe-style lawlessness it had vowed to end.

Since the country’s coffers are empty, the cash needed for the compensation deal would be raised in 30-year bonds on the international market, the compensation agreement said. Half the sum would be distributed within a year, the rest paid out in the next four.

Andy Pascoe, head of the Commercial Farmers Union, said: “Similar cases have been brought to our attention and we have been able to resolve them before eviction orders were enforced.”

The Times