The story of Zimbabwe’s brutal and relentless farm invasions over the past 15 years has been widely covered in the media, especially during the early days when they were regarded as headline news. 

 

What’s missing is a cohesive platform for publicising the extent of the horror experienced since February 2000 by farmers and their workers who have lost family members, their homes and livelihoods, as well as suffered trauma, appalling injuries and dislocation.

 

This website seeks to:

 

• Expose the details of the gross injustices in order to stop further injustice.

• Provide the victims with a platform for telling the world their stories, either anonymously  - due to the pervasive fear factor - or, with their permission, with names included.  [It takes courage to revisit the emotional and physical horror of harassment and brutality. And it’s painful to write down what it means to lose your home, your livelihood and your dignity. It’s also devastating to have been unable to protect your loyal workers, many of whom have been with you for years.]

• Provide proof so that no one can discount the facts or dismiss the scale of the systematic, clearly orchestrated campaign, as has frequently been the case with the Gukurahundi massacres perpetrated by the Mugabe government from 1983-1987, just three years after independence.

• Ensure that those responsible are taken to court and held accountable for their crimes.

• Provide case study examples for the legal fraternity, academics and others.

• Put a human face to this terrible tragedy which has ruined the lives of countless people and rendered hundreds of thousands destitute.

• Demonstrate the many important ways in which commercial farmers contributed to the rural communities.

• Provide examples of innovative agricultural initiatives set up by commercial farmers which helped to create Zimbabwe’s world-class agricultural sector and a vibrant export market

​

PLEASE SEND US EXAMPLES OF INNOVATIVE AGRICULTURAL AND COMMUNITY INITIATIVES

​

We encourage former farming families to send us information on both their innovative agricultural initiatives and their community support initiatives so that we can upload them under those tabs in our RESOURCES section. 

​

​

​

​

The experiences of former farmer and author Cathy Buckle, who endured seven months of terrifying intimidation, typify those of commercial farmers and farm workers across the country.

 

On the flyleaf of her book, African Tears, published in 2001, Cathy wrote:

 

“... (Our) farm was claimed as a war veterans’ headquarters and every weekend political meetings were held in the field below the house – with hundreds in attendance.  They eventually crippled us psychologically and drove us to the brink of bankruptcy.  They harassed us and our employees, tortured one of our workers, pulled a gun and threatened to kill me, slaughtered one of our oxen, roamed our fields with packs of hunting dogs, felled over 3,000 gum trees and burnt the entire farm to the ground.  Our farm remains undesignated, unlisted and not required by the government for compulsory acquisition.”

 

Background

 

From 1997 to 2000, the Zimbabwean economy moved from escalating decline into freefall, triggering mass demonstrations and boycotts.  In February 2000, President Robert Mugabe lost a referendum to approve the extension of his increasingly contentious and unpopular 20-year rule by an additional 10 years.  This was despite his appeals to nationalism and the promise of free land which would be achieved by seizing white-owned commercial farms without compensating the owners.  He also sought to declare that Britain was unilaterally responsible for paying for land reform.

 

Losing the referendum was an unexpected disaster for President Mugabe as 2000 was a crucial election year.  In order to survive, it was essential to secure the rural vote.  Traditionally, the ruling ZANU PF party could rely on the rural population to return it to power as it accounted for just over 70% of the total vote and could be controlled by strategically-orchestrated campaigns of intimidation. In 2000, 76% of the 12.5 million population made a direct living from the land: 7.5 million people living in the communal areas and 1.8 to 2 million living on the commercial farms.

 

President Mugabe’s campaign to neutralise this crucial voting bloc was swift:  within days of the referendum, the violent farm invasions began.  Police and soldiers transported so-called “war veterans”, many of them unemployed youths, onto farms in government vehicles then stood by while looting, assaults, murders, the destruction of worker homes and the slaughtering of animals took place.  The entire process was organized and controlled by the state’s intelligence apparatus.