New crisis for Zimbabwe farmers

President Mugabe blames Zimbabwe's food crisis on drought

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- White farmers in Zimbabwe are bracing for new evictions as a deadline expires for them to stop working the land.

The Commercial Farmers' Union told CNN that 2,900 farmers must prepare to surrender their farms to landless Zimbabweans in line with Section 8 of the government's Land Requisition Act.

They have been told under the land reform programme to stop farming activities on their land by midnight on Monday and give up and transfer their property within 45 days.

The penalties for failing to comply are two years' jail or a fine of 20,000 Zimbabwean dollars ($360) or both.

Jenni Williams, spokeswoman for the CFU, told CNN that farmers now expected "opportunistic and criminal elements" to begin more evictions of white farmers knowing that they had the full backing of the law.

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But the new farms crisis comes on top of growing food shortages and imposed poverty for displaced farm workers.

"It is an extremely grim situation especially for a nation where half the population already faces starvation," the spokeswoman told CNN.

"It is not just the farmers who are affected. There are also 300,000 farm workers involved -- and you must multiply this by five to take account of the workers' families."

The Zimbabwean government of President Robert Mugabe says farmers will be affected but disputes the numbers, saying 400 farms were required to cease operations on Monday.

In a statement to the state-run Zimbabwean Broadcasting Corporation at the weekend, Land Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister Joseph Made said only the first batch of farms representing less than 10 percent of the 4,000 commercial farms would be will be affected by the Section 8 notices on Monday.

"Dr Made said the law was clear and no extensions will be granted," ZBC reported. "Despite an outcry for more time on the part of the commercial farmers, Dr Made said there was no going back on the land redistribution exercise."

The CFU told CNN it was considering court moves on Monday to try and get the order stayed.

The spokeswoman was unable to say how the farmers would respond to the government deadline, but said many owed money to the banks and their wheat was only good after the harvest in August.

The farm invaders have been accused of having little agricultural experience

"Many will defy the order as being illogical," she said.

Many white farmers whose land has been designated for seizure have however already left their farms, adding to the food crisis.

Agricultural authorities in Mozambique on Sunday told Reuters that some of 150 Zimbabwean farmers who had applied for land in the central province of Manica would soon be operating there, having paid their taxes and consulted local communities.

International aid agencies -- including the World Food Programme (WFP) -- say about half the Zimbabwean population might be in need of food assistance by the end of the year and that Zimbabwe's current food crisis is mainly man-made.

President Mugabe, whose March presidential election was condemned as fraudulent by many Western powers, blames this year's food shortage on drought.

Zimbabwe now has one of the world's fastest shrinking economies, with GDP forecast to fall at least 10 per cent during 2002, food production in crisis and tourism down to less than a quarter of 1996 levels. The price of critical health drugs has risen by over 200 percent since December.

According to the Zimbabwean Standard newspaper, inflation is running at 122 percent and the beleaguered Zimbabwean dollar now buys what six cents bought in 1995.

"If you look at all the things that are happening...if you add it up in any manner you want, what you will find is a situation that is getting worse and worse," Masipula Sithole, professor of political science at the University of Zimbabwe, told Reuters.

"There is more repression, a more repressive atmosphere and there are no new ideas coming from the government. It is behaving as if everything is normal and that is what is making the situation really bad."

The government arrested and took to court nearly 100 members of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) last week for illegal rallies.

The ruling ZANU-PF party says the rallies are being called to plot a national revolt to overturn Mugabe's re-election.