Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) Farmer 'set dog' on PM's niece

Farmer 'set dog' on PM's niece
by Mduduzi Mathuthu
11/06/2009 00:00:00

A WHITE commercial farmer set a dog on a niece of Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and called her a kaffir, it was claimed last night. The shock revelations came as Tsvangirai’s niece Arikana Chihombori broke her silence over claims by a Chegutu farmer that she had tried to “invade” his farm.

Tsvangirai, visiting Washington D. C where he is due to meet US President Barack Obama on Friday, has told Chihombori, a US-based medical doctor, to “walk away from that farm”, his spokesman said.

But in a defiant message last night, Dr Chihombori said she would be suspending her interest on the farm, but only “for the time being”.

She launched a passionate defence of the land reform programme, saying it was a process to “correct historical injustices”.

She also used an interview with SW Radio Africa’s Violet Gonda to call for a national debate on what she says is round-the-clock abuse of black farm workers.

She also railed against foreign journalists who report from Zimbabwe but “turn a blind eye to the obvious fact on the ground”.

Chihombori said she had applied for land and was allocated an A1 farm which she turned down, settling for 60ha of the De Rus Farm owned by one L. J. Cremer.

She says her sister took the offer letter to the farm, accompanied by a government lands officer, but they suffered abuse never seen in living memory.

Chihombori stormed: “At one point, Mr Cremer let his dog at them and started yelling at my sister calling her a cold stupid kaffir and that he was not going to listen to any instructions from a kaffir.

“Even during the white-ruled Zimbabwean days, my sister does not remember anyone abusing her to the extent Mr Cremer and his son-in-aw abused her. Keep in mind my sister is a pastor, and as someone who is respected in the community, this came as a shock.

“To this day, she is still beside herself when she narrates the story. Some people are simply downright evil. But this is nothing new, there are many other cases. ”

Chihombori accused foreign journalists of ignoring the abuse of farm workers, while choosing to embed themselves with the farmers.

She added: “Let’s look at the average farm worker, what have they (white farmers) done for the farm worker? (But) a white child, by the time they become an adult, they are the farm manager, they have travelled all over the world.

“The question I have for the farmers is what have you done for your farm worker? He continues to be a farm labourer; no education; no promotion and when they get sick, they are sent down to their home village to die! … this is an everyday occurrence. ”

She recalled a conversation with an American doctor who visited Zimbabwe for two weeks but vowed never to return -- because of the mistreatment of farm workers he had witnessed.

“He told me he saw it the minute he woke up, and it continued until he went to bed. He was there for two weeks. He had never seen a man mistreat another man like the farmers. If the truth be told, this is what we need to talk about. ”

And she insisted she had done nothing wrong: “As far as my issue with the Cremers is concerned, I have an offer letter and that’s it. ”

Chihombori’s refusal to back down will increase tensions among Tsvangirai’s senior aides who are keen to stop the row from engulfing the Prime Minister’s whirlwind trip to the US and Europe to seek a “new beginning” in relations with Zimbabwe.

Western leaders, hugely sensitive to the plight of Zimbabwe’s white farmers, have demanded that “farm invasions” stop before the restoration of financial aid to the country and lifting of sanctions.

Tsvangirai recently said reports of farm invasions were exaggerated, and President Robert Mugabe accuses white farmers of refusing to leave properties acquired by the government for resettlement and claiming there are new invasions when landless black farmers move in.

Meanwhile Chihombori rejected claims by a farmers’ union campaign group on Tuesday that she was not the Prime Minister’s niece. The Justice for Agriculture claimed Tsvangirai had denied the relationship in a conversation with the US ambassador to Zimbabwe.

Labels: ARIKANA CHIHOMBORI, LAND REFORM, MORGAN TSVANGIRAI

posted by MrK @ 3:22 AM