Kill your whites, don't worry, we'll feed you

[Kratos]

Red Cross appeals for $32M for Zimbabwe food aid

JOHANNESBURG – The Red Cross says they need $32 million to feed 220,000 Zimbabweans who cannot access hard currency in the collapsed economy.

The Red Cross' Zimbabwe representative Stephen Omollo said Wednesday the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is appealing for the money to help Zimbabweans living in rural areas without access to U.S. dollars in an economy that has switched from the Zimbabwe dollar to hard currency.

Omollo says markets have food, but people can't afford to buy it. The Red Cross is distributing food vouchers that vendors can later exchange for cash.

The U.N. also appealed this week for $378 million in aid for Zimbabwe, but says the situation has improved somewhat under a 10-month-old coalition government.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091209/...abwe_red_cross

[Kratos]

By Nkepile Mabuse
CNN

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- A desperate Zimbabwean farmer fighting to hold onto his land -- a year after the country's political rivals pledged to govern jointly -- fears he will eventually lose to politics and violence.


Ben Freeth's farm was gutted by fire, as was his father-in-law's.

1 of 3 The power-sharing agreement included an undertaking by both parties to ensure property rights are upheld but farm attacks and invasions continue unabated in Zimbabwe.

Charles Lock is one of an estimated 400 farmers who have remained in the country despite President Robert Mugabe's policy of redistributing white-owned farms to landless blacks.

"Why do they want to remove me when I've complied with everything they want? What more do they want other than for me to pack my bags and leave and if that's the case, then admit that that is the policy. Pass a law: no whites are allowed to farm. Then it makes it clear," Lock said.

Since 2000, Mugabe's controversial land reform program has driven more than 4,000 commercial farmers off their land, destroying Zimbabwe's once prosperous agricultural sector.

"When the land reform program began, we decided we were not going to have a confrontational attitude; that we would actually go along with this program because it was the only way that this whole thing would be sorted out. So I voluntarily gave away my own farm and moved onto my father-in-law's farm," Lock said.

That was in 2002. A year later the government came knocking on his door again, he said, demanding more land.

Lock told CNN he eventually gave up 70 percent of his father-in-law's farm, which he then owned. Now an army general is demanding Lock's remaining 30 percent.

When Zimbabwe's new unity government was formed -- with Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change -- in February this year, the general allegedly posted soldiers on Lock's farm. The farmer said he stopped farming and trade at gun point.

When CNN visited Lock's farm this month, workers were standing idle. Maize and tobacco, which Lock said is worth more than U.S. $1 million, lay in storage.

"They've switched off our irrigation system, taken out keys and stop our trucks if we want to deliver maize," he told CNN.

So Lock had to sneak into his own property like a thief by cutting open the gate leading to his store room. He took a few valuables from his workshop suspecting that his whole place will soon be looted.

With the formation of a unity government farmers were hoping for some protection but Lock said: "Nothing is happening here. There is no land audit happening, no one comes out here to check, to see. We are just left vulnerable."

On another farm, Ben Freeth's fight for his land has just escalated to another level.

Freeth has been repeatedly beaten, arrested and harassed. Now his farmhouse and that of his father-in-law have been gutted by a mysterious fire. See the destruction the fire caused

Freeth could not say for sure that this is arson but told CNN that the group of ZANU-PF youths who have occupied his farm have repeatedly threatened to burn his house.

"One time they came round with burning sacks at night and they started making a huge noise and ringing a great big bell and shouting and screaming. They were going underneath the thatch saying we are going to burn your house down if you don't get out," he said.

Freeth and his father-in-law Mike Campbell are among a group of Zimbabwean farmers who won the right to remain on their land at a southern African tribunal.

But Mugabe has declared the ruling null and void and pulled out of the tribunal. Farmers cannot contest land issues in Zimbabwe and approaching international courts has thus far not worked either.

When CNN interviewed Mugabe's minister of state, Didymas Mutasa, about the disregard for human and property rights on the farms, he blamed the farmers for the violence, saying landless blacks are getting frustrated with their refusal to relinquish their land.

"Human rights are beginning to be seen now because they benefit the whites, and when they were affecting blacks badly as they did the likes of us, it didn't matter and nobody raised anything about those human rights.

"And sometimes we say, good heavens, if that is the kind of human rights you are talking about, you better keep them away from us; we don't want to see them," he told CNN.

But it is black farm workers who are caught in the cross fire. They continue to bear the brunt of the land reform program by repeatedly being beaten and intimidated. Some have even been killed.

Tractor driver William Kale said it is farm laborers working for white farmers who are targeted.

"They actually say you the workers, you are ones that are supporting the white farmer. That is why he is carrying on farming and we refuse to go because we have nowhere to go," Kale told CNN.

Many farmers and farm workers we spoke to say they are in a worse position now under the unity government than they were before.

Lock said: "When ZANU-PF was in power, you had hawks and doves in government and the doves were approachable and often helped us. But now that these positions are being shared with Mr. Tsvangirai's MDC, Mr. Mugabe has only appointed hawks to his cabinet who insist on continuing the land reform program. And when it comes to the MDC, the land issue seems to be a hot potato they do not want to touch. I have asked Mr. Tsvangirai to intervene but nothing is happening."


Prime Minister Tsvangirai refuted that. "That is not true," he said. "We initiated to find out who is being affected, the few remaining white farmers. Let's be frank here, we are talking of farmers as being white, but to me any destruction of farm production affects the whole viability of agriculture. There should be no disruption of any farm activity."

To those under siege these words are little comfort as they continue to fight a battle they are unlikely to win.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa...ers/index.html

[Kratos]

The same thing is happening in South Africa...

Two more S.African farmers killed: death toll now 3,106 and counting ...
Two more South African farmers have been murdered - bringing the death rate for white commercial farmers to 3,106 since apartheid rule ended in 1994.

Farmer shot for DStv -
2009-11-08

Durban - A former KwaZulu-Natal government official was shot dead on his farm near Pietermaritzburg for a DStv decoder, two cellphones and a video player, police said on Sunday.

Two armed men confronted Warwick Antony Dorning, 55, and his wife on their farm Adamshurst around 20:00 on Saturday, Director Phindile Radebe said in a statement.

One of them killed Dorning with a shot to the head, before they made off with the electronic equipment. He was found lying in a pool of blood with a gun shot wound and declared dead on scene. Dorning's wife was unhurt. No arrests had been made. A spent 9mm cartridge was found on the scene.

Dorning, farmer and a doctor by profession, was a chief of staff in the KwaZulu-Natal premier's office and retired in July.

Robbers mow down farmer -
2009-10-05

Cullinan - A farmer was killed when three men robbed his house in Cullinan on Monday morning, police said.

Constable Sally Skosana said three men entered the farm north of Pretoria during the early hours of Monday.

"The farm owner's wife heard the dogs barking and went outside to investigate. The three men then pointed a firearm at her and entered the house."

When the farm owner woke up to investigate, one of the men shot him in the chest and he died instantly.

The robbers took off with two cellphones and a laptop.

They were said to have earlier broken into another farm house in the area and stolen a rifle.

"The owners of the house were away during the robbery."

No one was arrested in connection with the incident and police were investigating a case of murder and house robbery, said Skosana.

6-man gang attacks farmer 70 -
2009-10-09

Bloemfontein - Six armed men attacked and assaulted a Free State farmer near Warden and stole an undisclosed amount of money on Friday, police said.

Sergeant Mmako Mophiring said six men overpowered the farmer at the farm Skaapskraal at about 11:45.

"Steve Minnaar, 70, his wife and some workers were tied up with cables and ties."

Mophiring said the men assaulted the victims and stole a firearm.

The robbers escaped in a vehicle belonging to a friend of the farmer.

"They later stole a Corsa vehicle which was left in Warden," said Mophiring.

Minnaar and his wife were taken to a private doctor for medical attention.

Mophiring said police were investigating a case of armed robbery and anyone with information about the incident could contact their nearest police station.


http://southafrica-pig.blogspot.com/...n-on-farm.html

[Kratos]

Peice of shit Nelson Mandela is a hero to some people but not me. He's a formar terrorist and, he didn't end an apartheid, he reversed it. Now South Africa is spiriling into a shit hole.

[Kratos]

I have a friend who works in South Africa teaching the local population of natives how to build shelters from the free materials the gvmt gives them. It doesn't pay anything.

The way it works is land reform will eventually eliminate all white land ownership. But, the majority of the population doesn't feel like waiting to get land the leagal way, so they go with ak-47's and take the land by force, by people who have no way or knowledge to farm the land.

[Kratos]

UNTIL 2000, ZIMBABWE WAS the breadbasket of Africa, exporting wheat, tobacco, and corn to the rest of the continent and beyond. Zimbabwe contains the most fertile farmland on the continent, and until recently was a tourist Mecca, home of Victoria Falls, one the seven natural wonders of the world, and numerous game reserves, now nearly emptied by poachers and starving peasants. The newly independent country had yet more advantages, including excellent transportation and banking systems for its agricultural, mining, and tourism industries.

Though a die-hard Marxist, Mugabe was no dummy. He knew where his bread was buttered. He gave assurances to whites that their rights and property were secure. "We will not seize land from anyone who has a use for it," he vowed. At independence about 4,000 white farmers owned 70 percent of the fertile land; nearly two-thirds had bought their farms after independence and held titles issued by the Mugabe government, according to Harvard historian Samantha Power. "Good old Bob," white farmers called Mugabe. With markets watched over by the extremely capable former finance minister Timothy Stamp, Zimbabwe's economy remained the envy of the Dark Continent.

All that changed in 2000 as Mugabe's popularity began to slip. First the president's new constitution was rejected by voters, a constitution that would have radically increased his authority. Mugabe blamed the white farmers and black sell-outs for his defeat and immediately undertook fast-track land reform, which literally meant confiscating the best farms and giving them to his cronies, few of whom had any interest in farming. Mugabe justified the land grab by saying that white settlers had stolen the land from blacks, so they were simply taking back what was rightfully theirs.

Later that year a white farmer, David Stevens, was murdered by squatters. Within two years 10 white farmers had been murdered. Those that did not flee were soon evicted as the pace of land-reform quickened. By 2003, there were only 500 of the 4,000 large-scale farmers left. And these farmers could grow crops only at severe losses due to Mugabe's price controls and nearly 800 percent inflation. Today farm machinery lies rusting in ruined fields and emaciated cattle wander the back roads dying of foot-and-mouth disease. The land grabs, however, have done little to ease the plight of average Zimbabweans. Hunger and disease is rampant and unemployment now stands at 70 percent. And yet every night before the evening news the state-run television broadcasts footage from the colonial past as a reminder of what could happen if whites or their lackeys in the opposition regain power.

http://spectator.org/archives/2005/0...et-to-dustbowl

[TITANIUM]

I would rather be deployed to Iraq again then go to South Africa.

That place is in dire turmoil, to say the least.

I have to read all of this post a couple of times more.

Good read K.

Best

T