Maravi

(HERALD) Rhodies spoiling for dangerous fight

Rhodies spoiling for dangerous fight
By David Samuriwo

TWENTY-EIGHT years after Independence, the defeated former Rhodesian forces have regrouped. They have now successfully organised and mobilised their human and financial resources under the banner of the MDC. The move is aimed at denying Zimbabwe freedom to freely choose and explore its own development path.

During our protracted liberation war, most white commercial farmers were attested members of the Rhodesian army. Senior officers in that army have weaved their way into leadership positions of the MDCs. These include Giles Mutsekwa of MDC-T, David Coltart of MDC and many others. With unprecedented funding from the British and other Western governments, the former colonial forces are now itching for a re-match with the former liberation forces comprising Zipra and Zanla forces.

Zimbabwe’s National Liberation War Veterans’ Association under its then chairman Dr Chenjerai Hunzvi fruitfully negotiated with Government an allotment of 20 percent of all land redistributed during the land reform programme. That arrangement unwaveringly thrusts the war veterans in pole position as the chief defenders of the agrarian reform programme.

The agreement has also precipitated a potentially explosive confrontation with the former Rhodesian forces hiding under the banner of the MDC. Perhaps the impending physical confrontation can still be avoided if sanity prevails on both sides. Maybe, but judging from actions of the former Rhodies it might be too late to steer clear of an open confrontation.

When President Mugabe was sworn in as Prime Minister on the eve of Independence in April 1980, he embarked on a potentially explosive undertaking where members of Zanla and Zipra, the victorious guerilla armies, were integrated into a national army that also had to provide somewhere to stay for the defeated Rhodesian forces. A peaceful integration was inescapably achieved.

However, events that unfolded last week on both A1 and A2 farms countrywide especially in the provinces of Masvingo, Mashonaland East and Mashonaland Central need to be looked at gravely and there is also a need to unravel the calamitous consequences that could be triggered by the reckless behaviour of the former Rhodesian forces.

In Mhangura, Marondera, Caesar Mine, Mvurwi, Centenary and elsewhere, the former Rhodesian forces visited the commercial farms they once held giving lawfully resettled farmers, most of whom are former liberation fighters, 10-hour notices to vacate the farms. Gun-totting and in an insolent mood numerous parties were held to celebrate their purported return to the farms in anticipation of victory by Morgan Tsvangirai. They can never be a greater provocation or humiliation to the former liberation fighters that surpasses such action.

Situated just a few kilometres from Caesar Mine in Mashonaland Central Province, Wheels-Bridge Farm owned by one Phillip has of late become a suspicious hive of activity. It is one among the many places where celebrations to mark a purported MDC-T victory and the return of whites to their former farms took place. Farm workers were left completely bewildered. The confidence and the aura of invincibility displayed by the former commercial farmers left most of the workers shell-shocked.

The soils at the farm are awfully fertile and before the land re-distribution programme, Phillip used to benefit from the use of over 2 000 hectares all alone. Following the land reform programme, he was allocated well over 500 hectares-most of it arable and where he continuously makes good returns from tobacco and maize crops. His labour pool is envy to neighbours.

Phillip has co-existed harmoniously with his fellow A2 farmers, sharing new farming technology, security information and a host of other compelling issues. Life could not have been any better. All this abruptly changed a few days ago when the prominent farmer played host to a hoard of former commercial farmers who descended on his farm to celebrate a perceived MDC-T victory that would become a prelude to the return of the Rhodesian security apparatus into the agricultural sector.

This is an open and confrontational challenge to the former liberation forces that has been widely accepted by the rank and file of the ZNLWVA. In fact there is nothing wrong in celebrating any kind of victory, even an imagined one. What is wrong is the humiliation of a victorious army on its home turf.

After the party, and perhaps having had one too many the white former commercial farmers moved from one A2 farmer to another giving them 10-hour notices to pack their belongings and return to the rural areas where "you belong". Their language was dangerous; "You took away our farming implements, you took away our land and we will not allow you to leave here with anything including your donkeys". From that day, a chain of events unfolded and Wheels Bridge Farm will never be the same again. Phillip has completely lost the trust his neighbours had on him.

Former commercial farmer at Horta Farm, a few kilometres from Wheels Bridge, another Phillip, is a Rhodie basking in glory. Having recently won a court ruling that gave him back his farming implements which were under the custody of his former manager, under some arrangements that authorised the former manager the use and custody of the equipment, the man wasted no time in celebrating Tsvangirai’s purported victory. Indeed he had a cause for celebration.

His efforts in identifying former farm workers who used to reside in the Mazowe West constituency and other surrounding wards, providing them with transport and food so that they cast their vote against President Mugabe must have been a formidable task to the Forrester Estates manager.

Brothers, Tim and one Naison inappropriately called ‘‘Chimbetu’’ after the legendary Sungura singer could also not be left out of the celebrations. They were also there at Wheels Bridge looking ahead to happier times once more. Unfortunately, things turned upside down for Tim.

After being allowed by one A2 farmer to use a few hectares of land at Mondesny Farm, also in the same neighbourhood for a couple of years, Tim had everything going pretty well on his side. As news filtered that Tim was one of those celebrating "the return of land to the whites", his landlord gave him 10-hours to pack his bags. Pyrrhic victory if one may call it.

In Marondera, a white former commercial farmer earmarked for the Agriculture Ministry, under a new MDC Tsvangirai dispensation Ian Kay, wasted no time in visiting his former farm now home to over 500 people. His language was blunt and to the point. "I am going to be your next Agriculture Minister so guys be prepared to move out anytime. This is my place and I do not intend going anyway else." Such was the awe and shock unleashed by the MDC-T’s surrogate mothers despite a lukewarm denial by the MDC-T that it is not going to return land to former white commercial farmers.

Perhaps there is every reason to forgive these surrogate mothers. Zimbabwe dominated all World news channels from March 29 to March 31 with every agency predicting an overwhelming win by the MDC-T. But some of the white farmers just went overboard.

The worst scenario took place in the Mhondoro Game Park formerly owned by yesteryear football great Bruce Grobbelaar. Those who passed by the lodges were greeted with a barrage of tracer bullets lighting the skies as celebrations took on an unprecedented turn. Gerry was there, Nicole drunk himself into a stupor and Baas Manzeve, as he was popularly known by his farm workers had to be restrained from uttering the "kaffir" word to the bartenders repeatedly. The whole bunch lived in a fool’s paradise that evening only to wake up to the sober reality of a neck-to-neck race between Zanu-PF and the MDC-T in the parliamentary vote count.

Tim, Phillip and "Chimbetu" are former soldier boys. By returning to properties acquired by Government with rifles slung over their shoulders the former Rhodesian forces are chewing more than they can stomach — a fact they are aware of.

Countenancing a situation where the British would intervene on their behalf is foolhardy and at most wishful thinking. It is a pity that some of the white former commercial farmers are reading too much into Gordon Brown’s posturing the same way Tsvangirai fell for Tony Blair’s monkeyshines. Never mind the infamous document attributed to Tendai Biti inviting the likes of Colonel Lionel Dyke to head the Zimbabwe National Army. That is not going to be possible in the anticipated future. A fight to the finish is in the making and fortunately; the terrain and its features are like fish in water to the former guerrillas.

MDC-T shadow minister for defence; Giles Mutsekwa and former Rhodesian security forces are inseparable. They both share insidious fond memories of the massacres they committed at Nyadzonia in Mozambique and Mulungushi in Zambia. The emergence of the MDC on the political arena has given them a new lease of life as they falsely clad themselves in democracy robes when only yesterday they constituted the last line in defence of the Ian Smith regime.

The gratuitous humiliation of war veterans who have settled in the former commercial farms is a recipe for open confrontation between the former liberation forces and loose ends of the former Rhodesian forces that have chosen to defy the rule of law in anticipation of protection from the MDC in the unlikely and unfortunate event that the party attaints the reigns of power.

The war veterans are aware that their former enemies have now regrouped under the banner of MDC-T. It is a pity that the majority of the MDC-T supporters are young men and women, most of them born after the war. The message, however, has to be put across to them boldly so that they understand the dire consequences of supping with former Rhodesian forces.

Ex-Zanla and Zipra forces will never allow a situation where the Rhodesian forces disguised as a political grouping can be allowed to reverse the gains of the liberation struggle in which thousands perished in order to liberate not only the former commercial farms but the entire land situated between Zambezi River in the north and the Limpopo in the south.

It is common knowledge that former soldiers who fought on the side of the Smith regime have now teamed up with British hired guns camouflaged as political entities to displace legally resettled war veterans from the farms. There is no doubt that this move will be resisted strongly using the only language the Rhodesians understand — the barrel of the gun.

Perhaps it is also important to remind the overzealous former Rhodesian forces that there may also be some among the former liberation forces who are also overzealous and are waiting for the slightest opportunity to deliver instant justice as revenge for those massacred in Mozambique, Zambia and in the war zones.

Labels: MDC, RHODESIA, WHITE FARMERS, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 10:52 PM