MORE ZIMBABWE CIRCUS!
Over time, I have written several "in depth" articles about the Zimbabwe Circus. One was published in the recent issue of THE BARNES REVIEW. A copy of that article and the others are featured on these pages.
While it is not difficult to find a reason to make fun of the Eternal Dictator, Robert Mugabe, the problem is very real for a couple (white farmers) blind-sided by this tyrant. It seems the Daily Mail, a British Newspaper, ran a lengthy article on this and we are sharing it here.
The link is:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3426266/White-Zimbabwean-farming-family-driven-land-make-way-black-British-doctor.html
Here is the article:
'This is too much for me': Zimbabwean farmer's wife evicted from family home by black British GP reveals 'thugs' have been terrorising her for months
- Phillip Rankin and his family have farmed in Zimbabwe for decades
- Their farm has been taken from them and given to Sylvester Nyatsuro
- Mr Rankin was handcuffed and dragged away from the property last week
- Police have 'taken over the home' and are 'stopping them using the farm'
- New owner originally from Zimbabwe but now works as GP in Nottingham
The
wife of a Zimbabwean farmer evicted from the family plantation by a
British GP wept today as she described the trauma of losing everything
they own.
Anita
Rankin, who has farmed the tobacco fields with husband Phillip for
thirty years, said she could no longer cope with the campaign of
intimidation from 'thugs' employed by the GP, who is said to be friends
with Grace Mugabe.
She
told MailOnline: 'This is actually too much for me. This has been going
on for months. The people have not behaved well towards us.
'They
would come to the kitchen door and stare at us and they made so much
noise. It was a very tough situation and it went on and on.
'We
don't know where we will live or what we will do. I am born and bred on
a farm. I don't know town life. And I only know Zimbabwe.'
The
Rankins were handcuffed by police and dragged off their land so it
could be claimed by Sylvester Nyatsuro, a black British doctor who runs a
weightloss clinic in Nottingham.
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Occupied: The couple say police have taken over their home and stopped them working on the farm
Family: The Rankins are now staying with a relative around 15 miles away from Harare
Owners: British doctor Sylvester
Nyatsuro and his wife Veronica have been given a farm belonging to a
family of white farmers in Zimbabwe
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The
property in northern Zimbabwe was stormed by police officers, who have
since taken over their home and even confiscated their tractor when
workers tried to continue efforts to grow tobacco, and the stress of the
situation has made Mrs Rankin ill.
She
and her husband are now staying with their son Barry in Harare as they
contemplate how to claim back the £300,000 tobacco crop they planted and
move on with their lives.
The
deserted farm was eerily quiet on Tuesday morning, apart from the
sounds of the settlers - one of whom was armed with an AK-47.
Hundreds
of thousands of pounds of carefully planted tobacco is being allowed to
wither in the sun, while a once-loved garden blooming with flowers goes
untended.
A handful of workers can be seen in the distance trying to salvage the Rankins' expensive crop.
The
Rankin family has no property beyond the farm and had borrowed a huge
sum of money - £400,000 - to finance this year's crop and manage debts
from previous years.
Son
Barry said: 'We paid the workers their January salary [on Monday], but
as for next month I just don't know. I don't know how we will manage any
of this.'
Barry, 33, began to work for his father in 2010 and then built a new house on the farm for his wife and three young children.
Dr
Nyatsuro, who is supposedly linked to the Mugabes through his wife
Veronica, apparently turned up at Kingston Deverill in September with a
government document saying that he was now the rightful owner of the
land.
Two
dozen settlers then moved into a nearby cottage and caused problems for
the family, according to Mrs Rankin, 54, who has three children with
her husband.
Tobacco: Mr Rankin invested £300,000 in his current tobacco crop which will be ready for harvest in August
Home: The Rankins pictured on their tobacco farm in the Centenary district of northern Zimbabwe
Couple: The pair were born and brought up in Zimbabwe and have lived on the farm for decades
The
family said their home is now under guard by seven members of the
Zimbabwe Republic Police who have prevented workers from using the
tractor.
Officers
are sleeping on the floor inside the empty house and have even removed
some of the doors from the property and loaded them on to a vehicle.
Dr
Nyatsuro, 45, is originally from the African country but has lived in
Britain for at least 15 years, and is now in charge of his own GP
practice.
He
and his wife Veronica, who is reportedly travelled to Zimbabwe on
January 26, were allocated the Rankins' farm under Robert Mugabe's
controversial land seizure laws which allow the state to take the
property of white people and hand it over to 'indigenous' black
Africans.
Barry,
speaking from his new home in the capital Harare, described how the
family thought they had 'survived' after they held onto their land in
the initial wave of confiscations by the Mugabe regime.
He
hit out against the eviction, saying it 'doesn't make sense' that a
wealthy professional who lives in the West should be given property by
the government.
'As
a family we are absolutely gutted,' Mr Rankin told MailOnline. 'We have
been turfed off of our land and there's nothing we can do about it. We
are devastated.
'It
was our business - but more important than that, it was our home. We
have never owned anything other than the farm and that's gone in one
weekend.
'My
parents have been working on the farm for 35 years. I grew up there.
Those years have not all been hunky dory, we have had our ups and downs
like any family, but we thought the farm would always be there.
Distress: They say the situation has made Mrs Rankin ill and they have nowhere to go
Farmers: Phillip and Anita Rankin, pictured, have been forced off their land in ZImbabwe
In
the early hours of Friday morning, 20 police officers dug under the
fence surrounding the family's home and knocked on the door before
carting away most of their belongings and taking them to a derelict
warehouse.
They then handcuffed Mr Rankin and took him to a police station before later releasing him to stay with relatives.
Barry
added: 'We have had 16 years of land acquisition in Zimbabwe and we
thought we'd survived - we didn't see this coming. We thought we had
ridden our way through it, we thought we would be alright.
'I don't know what we are going to do. I can't even think beyond tonight.'
Slamming
the decision to give his land to Dr Nyatsuro, he added: 'It doesn't
make sense to me, how a doctor who lives in the UK can come and take our
land.
'Land
requisition was supposed to be for the landless, for the people who
didn't have anything. I thought it was for the people of Zimbawe with
nothing, not for wealthy British doctors who do not live here.
'But
what do I know? I don't know the law, I'm just a simple farmer. My
parents have farmed tobacco over four decades, it is all we ever knew.'
Property: Dr Nyatsuro and his wife live at this £700,000 home with five bedrooms outside Nottingham
Practice: Dr Nyatsuro runs The Willows Medical Centre in Nottingham, a medical and slimming clinic
Farm: The couple have been given the farm in the Centenary district of Zimbabwe owned by the Rankin family
'It is
every family's dream to pass on their property onto their children. My
parents were going to give it to me, and I was going to pass it on to my
children and their children after that.'
A
tobacco expert, who asked not to be named, said Northern Tobacco, which
represents British American Tobacco in Zimbabwe, tries to ensure that
all farming it finances in the country is grown on land which remains in
control of the original owner.
'They
don't want to buy tobacco from stolen farms,' he said, predicting that
the Rankin's tobacco would be taken away when it is cured, and will be
bought by another company for sale.
Phillip
and Anita Rankin both have British ancestry but were born and brought
up in Zimbabwe, employing more than 40 people at Kingston Deverill.
Dr
Nyatsuro has been practising as a doctor in Nottingham for at least 15
years after moving to Britain from his home country, and he describes
his nationality as British in official documents.
He runs a GP practice, The Willows Medical Centre, and is a specialist in helping patients lose weight.
The
doctor lives with his wife and their three children in a £700,000
five-bedroom home outside Nottingham. Mrs Nyatsuro has been rumoured to
be related to Mugabe's wife Grace, but she has denied this.
Last
year he launched the Zimbabwe Diaspora Skills Network, a charity which
aims to use the expertise of Zimbabweans living abroad to boost
healthcare and other services in the poverty-stricken state.
He
was previously director of Midlands College Limited, a company which
provided training for dental nurses and was the subject of a compulsory
winding-up order in 2010.
The
couple have denied using violence to enforce their claim to the
Rankins' farm, saying that they were allocated the property by the state
in accordance with normal legal procedures.
Policy: Robert
Mugabe, pictured with his wife Grace, has enforced a series of land
grabs taking the property of white farmers and giving it to black
Zimbabweans
At
the time that news of their claim to the farm came to light last year,
Dr Nyatsuro's clinic was targeted by protesters accusing him of
collaborating with the Mugabe regime.
Mrs
Nyatsuro said that the couple were 'under siege' and claimed they had
received death threats, insisting that none of the Rankins' allegations
were true.
A protest by supporters of the Rankins is set to take place on Friday, with around 50 people expected to take part.
Among
them will be Rose Benton, 70, from Zimbabwe Vigil, a group that aims to
promote human rights and democracy in Zimbabwe. She criticised Dr
Nyatsuro for trying to move in on the land.
Mrs
Benton, who is originally from Zimbabwe but lives in London, said: 'He
is a British citizen and a GP – it is pure theft what is happening. He
is someone who is living and working in England but he is behaving in a
thuggish way.
'It
is double standards that he is supporting Mugabe but living here. At
the moment (in Zimbabwe) if you are connected to the government you can
go round stealing other people's land.'
Mrs
Benton's husband, Dennis, 74, also a member of the group, said: 'The
Rankins were born in Zimbabwe… and now a British doctor who has lived
here for 15 years and has no intention of going back can steal this farm
when the crop is still in the ground.
Neighbours of the couple described the doctor as 'a perfect gentleman' who would never want to cheat anyone else.
'He is an exceptionally nice man and a perfect gentleman,' one local resident said. 'You couldn't meet a nicer guy.
'Veronica keeps to herself but she's nice too. They moved in here around 2006, I believe. They've always been approachable.'
The
neighbour added that the couple had spent less time at their Nottingham
home recently as they stepped up their charity work in Zimbabwe.
Dr
Nyatsuro's lawyer today denied that his client had clashed with the
Rankin family, claiming that the farmers had not been able to prove that
they are the rightful owners of the land.
He
also insisted that the doctor's political connections were not
responsible for his being given the farm, saying 'any Zimbabwean has a
right to benefit from the land reform programme'.
Fungai
Chimwamurombe, a Harare-based solicitor, told MailOnline: 'The
government's position is that the farm was acquired over a decade ago.
'At
various court sessions we attended with Mr Rankin and his lawyer, they
failed to show the legal basis why he was occupying the farm.
'It
is our understanding that the minister of lands offered our client the
land because they believe it is state land and it is up to Mr Rankin to
prove otherwise.
'The
issue here is not between our client and Mr Rankin because he is only a
third party who applied generally for land years back. He was on the
waiting list for a long time and was offered this state land on the
strength of his application.'
The
lawyer added that Dr Nyatsuro did not know that the farm was occupied
by the Rankins until he went to take possession of the property
allocated to him by the government.
He
said: 'It is our understanding that many Zimbabweans regardless of
political affiliation benefited from the land reform programme.
'We
are not aware of their relationship status with the president... any
Zimbabwean has a right to benefit from the land reform programme.'
Mr
Chimwamurombe claimed that the ownership of the farm had not been
finally settled because police told Dr Nyatsuro that he could not
immediately move in.
The
Foreign Office has expressed concern over the seizure of the Rankins'
farm and suggested that it 'did not follow the process as described by
the constitution'.
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