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Zimbabwe to Speed Up Farmer Evictions
Thursday, September 12, 2002
(13:22 GMT) (14:22 UK)
The BBC

White farmers have had two years of intense pressure.
Image Credit: BBC.com.

The United States and Britain say that some of the land which has been seized has been given to Mr. Mugabe's political associates and military leaders, instead of the landless blacks he has promised to help.

The Zimbabwe Government plans to change the law, making it easier and quicker to evict white farmers, state media has reported.

The new legislation would be introduced soon, according to the Herald newspaper, widely seen as a government mouthpiece.

This follows the refusal of many white farmers to comply with a government deadline to leave their farms by 9 August.

Many have filed legal challenges and the High Court has ruled that many eviction orders were invalid because the government had failed to notify banks, to which many farms are mortgaged.

Fines for not complying with eviction orders will be increased from 20,000 Zimbabwe dollars to 100,000 Z$ ($1,800), the Herald says.

The paper also quoted Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa as saying that he will be trying to reduce the time farmers have to leave their farms from 90 to 5 days after they are served with an eviction order.

Some 2,900 of Zimbabwe's 4,000 white farmers were told to leave their land last month.

But lobby group Justice for Agriculture (Jag) says that 2,500 have remained.

Some 300 of them have been arrested by the police, according to Reuters news agency.

* Frustrated
(More: BBC Online News Source)
2002 © The British Broadcasting Corporation.

Dan