Some evicted white Zim farmers to be compensated

FOR the first time since invasions of white-owned land began in 2000, the government has said it will create laws to enable some white farmers to stay on portions of their land.

“Beneficiaries” of the land grab, mostly President Robert Mugabe’s officials and allies, will also have to pay a small rental per hectare to be used, in part, to pay compensation to evicted farmers.

Provincial leaders said Elizabeth Mitchell, a producer of 100 000 day-old chicks a week, would be allowed to remain on her farm, Barquest, about 260km south of Harare. Five others, including a dairy farmer, a pedigree bull farmer and one who produced poultry, would also be allowed to stay.

“We have asked provinces to give us names of white farmers they want to remain on farms so we can give them security of tenure documents to enable them to plan their operations,” said Lands Minister Douglas Mombeshora last weekend.

Mitchell’s farm had been allocated by the government, at least on paper, to Zimbabwe’s Minister of Tourism, Walter Mzembi, but the Masvingo Province, where Mitchell farms, has backed the farmer.

Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister Shuvai Mahofa recently signed a schedule with names of five more white farmers who would be issued with 99-year leases because their operations were of “strategic economic importance”.

Mombeshora also said the government would also set up a “land commission” which the EU would help fund, to survey who got what during the chaotic land grab.

He said new land laws were nearly ready to go to parliament, which would force beneficiaries to pay rent, and those funds would, he said, begin the process of compensation for evicted white farmers.

Hendrik Viljoen, the director of the Commercial Farmers’ Union, said he was pleased the government was talking of compensation and he hoped the UK would, in accordance with Zimbabwe’s constitution since 1992, finance modest compensation claimed by evicted farmers. “Many of the evicted farmers and their workers are old now, destitute and desperate for compensation.”

Zimbabwe’s distinguished lawyer and academic, Reginald Austin, who was legal council at the 1979 Lancaster House negotiations for liberation war leader Joshua Nkomo, says the UK should pay for the land as it was brushed aside at the time.

“The negotiations broke down over the land issue, and leaders were then persuaded to accept the deal, and deal with it later, after they were in power.”

Mugabe changed the constitution in 1992 to allow land to be taken from white farmers. The new charter said that the UK would pay for the land and the government would pay compensation for improvements. – Independent Foreign Service

Crushed by the crowd

CHENNAI: Twenty-seven people were killed and 40 were injured in a stampede in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, yesterday, police said, as crowds surged to bathe in the Godavari River on the first day of a religious festival held once every 144 years.

The stampede started after a woman fell down in a crowd pushing to get through a narrow entrance to the banks of the Godavari. The crowd had swelled to more than 1 million yesterday. – Reuters

Gored tourist dies

MADRID: A 44-year-old French tourist died yesterday after being gored by a bull at a festival in the Spanish town of Pedreguer in the eastern Mediterranean province of Alicante, municipal authorities said.

Many Spanish towns hold festivals involving bulls in summer, the most famous of which is San Fermin in Pamplona. – Reuters

Chopper crash kills 1

ZURICH: A helicopter crashed in the area around the popular Swiss tourist attraction Jungfraujoch glacier yesterday, killing the pilot.

“We can confirmthat one person died in the crash,” a spokeswoman for the Bern cantonal police said.

“The pilot was alone in the helicopter at the time of the crash.” The cause is not known. – Reuters

Jail for insulting king

BANGKOK: A Thai military court sentenced 10 people to up to five years in prison yesterday over audio and video recordings deemed insulting to the monarchy, in the latest of such convictions since a coup more than a year ago.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the army chief who seized power in a coup in May last year, has repeatedly vowed to vigorously enforce lese majeste laws. – Reuters

Settlement reached

NEW YORK: The city of New York has reached a settlement with the family of Eric Garner, who died after being put in a chokehold by police last July, agreeing to pay $5.9 million (R71m) to resolve a claim.

The death sparked protests by people outraged by police treatment of AfricanAmericans. – Reuters