Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Mike and Angela Campbell (Angela Campbell seen above after a beating meted out by Mugabe's thugs) have now had their own farmhouse burned to the ground, at the very same farm where the home of their daughter and son-in-law, Ben Freeth, was burned down to the ground over the weekend. I reported on it yesterday, with a picture of the burning house. Workers' homes were also destroyed. So not only is the ZANU PF Publicity Secretary after the farm but he is also determined to add to Zimbabwe's higher-than-90% unemployment rate by rendering the Mount Carmel Farm workers jobless. Things are about to get very hairy for the Campbells and Freeths and it is now almost certain that their very lives are in grave and immediate danger Harare, Zimbabwe, 02 September 2009 No, this is not a repeat of my story yesterday about the burning of Ben Freeth's farmhouse at Mount Carmel Farm in Chegutu. Mike Campbell's farmhouse, on the same farm as the burnt house of his son-in-law Ben Freet...

Ben Freeth, a Zimbabwean farmer from the Chegutu area, is seen here beaten black and blue by Mugabe's thugs in June last year. He and his elderly in-laws had been abducted and then beaten up with the butts of guns to get them to leave their farm so that it could be given to one of Mugabe's high-ranking loyalists, ZANU PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira. Five months later, Freeth and 78 other farmers from the area won a ruling at the SADC Tribunal in Windhoek barring Mugabe from taking over their farms. Mugabe has now reacted by withdrawing from the Tribunal, as he did with the British Commonwealth. As he, in fact, does whenever things do not go his way. Harare, Zimbabwe, 02 September 2009 The government of Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert "The Solution" Mugabe has pulled out the SADC Tribunal, citing the fact that the protocol establishing the Tribunal has not been ratified by the required two-thirds of SADC member states. The letter of withdrawal was written on 7 August, ac...

Ben Freeth's farmhouse on fire yesterday. The farmer, under siege from Mugabe's thugs, says the people who have invaded his farm watched as the house burned. They were driving around in Freeth's tractors and with his water pumps on board, which means he had nothing with which to try and douse the flames. They "did not come near us", he explains, saying they were laughing at him as his home burned. Harare, 01 September 2009 Ben Freeth and Mike Campbell, two farmers in the Chegutu area of Zimbabwe, have had their home at their farm, Mount Carmel, burned to the ground. Some workers' houses as well as their onsite factory also burned down to the ground. Freeth said he only managed to rescue his computer and family passports, adding that his family is now only left "with the clothes on our backs." The fire is almost certainly an arson attack, since there are ZANU PF invaders permanently at the farm and Freeth was away when the fire broke out. To make matt...

Zimbabwean farmers Mike Campbell and Ben Freeth react on November 28 last year (two months after Tsvangirai became Prime Minister) to a judgement by the SADC Tribunal in Windhoek ruling that they could keep their farm. The INclusive Government of Mugabe and Tsvangirai says it is not bound by this and that it will not listen to anything the SADC Tribunal says. Tsvangirai himself has now also said that there are no invasions going on but that there are farmers refusing to vacate land that has been forcibly acquired by the government . Meantime, the nation starves and begs for handouts. The case of the Campbells also reveals the lie that a farmer with only farm will not lose it. Harare, Zimbabwe, 26 August 2009 State media today carries an unsigned piece entitled "We Don't Need Another Land Audit", revealing yet again that Mugabe and his cronies are determined to ensure that they hang on to their ill-gotten multiple farms. Morgan Tsvangirai has been pushing for a Land audit ...

These two young men are guarding a farm in Chiredzi which they had just invaded earlier this year. The original owner is part of Ben Freeth's SADC Group, which won a ruling against the seizure of their farms by Mugabe. Elsewhere, in Chegutu, south east of Harare, widows who benefited from the Land Reform Programme are now being kicked off the farms by "new" owners in a chaotic process immersed in allegations of backhanders and the like Harare, Zimbabwe, 02 August 2009 A colonel in the Zimbabwe Defence Forces is currently harvesting sugar cane on a farm in Chiredzi which he confiscated from a widowed beneficiary of Mugabe's chaotic land reform. Colonel Makwenjere has benefited from the inexplicable actions of Lands Officer Jacob Chimoto in Chiredzi. One of the members of the District Lands Committee, which recommends people to be given farms to Agriculture House in Harare, Zimbabwe, is distancing himself from the whole thing. He claims not to know how the list of new ...

Land invaders, led by a character called "Landmine", broke into the house of Ben Freeth (seen here injured at the SADC Tribunal hearing that ruled in his favour) and threatened to eat his children on Tuesday night this week The white Zimbabwean farmer who was visited by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara a few weeks back had a torrid Tuesday night this week. Ben Freeth, who has been beaten up before by Mugabe's land invaders and who has a SADC tribunal ruling in his favour, had burning tyres dragged through his house that night. The invaders beat drums and rang bells, clanging metal objects together to intimidate the farmer. The leader of the invaders, called Landmine, took the phone Freeth was using to call the police and would not give it back. Police later arrived and "led out" the invaders without arresting them. Landmine returned the phone, according to Freeth, after police asked for it back.  A little while later, after the police had gone, Landmine an...