At its zenith, the Mount Carmel farm in northern Zimbabwe boasted 500 livestock and shipped its mangoes and lemons to Europe, a continent away.<\/p>\n
In 2009, that halcyon time ended abruptly when the farm was seized by thugs operating in the name of Robert Mugabe\u2019s land reform.<\/p>\n
Ten years later, Mount Carmel has just 15 cows and an overgrown orchard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis wonderful land is untapped,\u201d said its former owner, Ben Freeth.<\/p>\n
He is among the thousands of white farmers violently evicted by Mugabe\u2019s land reform policy, which almost at a stroke turned Zimbabwe from a bread basket into a basket case.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe\u2019s founding president died during a medical trip to Singapore last week, aged 95.<\/p>\n
He was toppled by his former military allies in 2017, ending a 37-year rule marked by political repression and economic mismanagement, and leaving a nation torn over his legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore we had an orchard, now it\u2019s a forest,\u201d said Sinos Mlauzi, a black Zimbabwean who used to work for Freeth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I heard Mugabe died, I was overjoyed,\u201d he said, lifting his cap to show scars left from 2009. \u201cHe took away our means of subsistence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mount Carmal\u2019s 1 200 hectares lie in the bush, near the northern town of Chegutu.<\/p>\n
Two dismembered tractors lie in a shed, while a pickup truck outside is riddled with bullet holes.<\/p>\n
Brick ruins and an empty swimming pool are all that remains of the Freeths\u2019 luxurious farmhouse, which was torched.<\/p>\n
Freeth, 50, recalls the six months of \u201chell\u201d he and his family suffered as mobs repeatedly attacked his property.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Mugabe\u2019s followers) kicked down the front door and dragged blazing tires inside,\u201d said Freeth, sitting in the lush gardens of the house he now occupies in Zimbabwe\u2019s capital Harare.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were banging on oil drums outside the house. They were threatening my children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Agricultural disaster<\/p>\n
Freeth\u2019s employees were beaten with steel rods and his parents-in-law were seriously injured.<\/p>\n
The violence culminated on August 30, 2009, when the Freeths returned from church to find their house was in flames.<\/p>\n
Mugabe\u2019s land reform was launched in 2000 to re-distribute land awarded to whites during British colonial rule, which ended with Mugabe\u2019s election in 1980.<\/p>\n
Twenty years ago, 18% of the best land belonged to white Zimbabweans, which represented less than one percent of the population.<\/p>\n
But the brutal eviction of white farmers, and their replacement by people who often had negligible skills, capital or experience in agriculture, caused a collapse in output, and with it Zimbabwe\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the best climate in the world and we are no longer capable to feed our population,\u201d said Freeth.<\/p>\n
One third of Zimbabweans are dependent on food aid, according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of farms were placed in the hands of Mugabe\u2019s allies and of underqualified, poorly-equipped farmers.<\/p>\n
Mount Carmel was awarded to Zimbabwean nationalist and ruling party ZANU-PF supporter Nathan Shamuyarira.<\/p>\n
The workforce of 150 employees shrank to less than a tenth of its size, said Mount Carmel\u2019s newly-appointed manager, Simon Shema.<\/p>\n
\u201cUs blacks, we had no land to cultivate. Mugabe gave us the opportunity to farm,\u201d Shema told AFP.<\/p>\n
He said he would be heading to Harare for Mugabe\u2019s funeral on Saturday to \u201cthank him\u201d.<\/p>\n
Surrounded by broken-down machinery, Shema was convinced the farm would be running within the next two months.<\/p>\n
Paprika, peas and corn would be planted. And the mangoes on the trees \u2013 yellowed from the lack of irrigation \u2013 would be exported.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will start small, and grow,\u201d said Shema.<\/p>\n
\u2018Stole their education\u2019<\/p>\n
Although ZANU-PF acknowledged some of the failures of Mugabe\u2019s land reform, it said the benefits were still to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround 30% of the seized lands are not being used,\u201d said Tatenda Gwinji, a ZANU-PF representative in Chegutu. \u201cWe are heading in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Freeth\u2019s former workers have been unemployed for the past decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a good life. Now we have nothing, not even food to eat,\u201d Peter Assan, 62, told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce the white farmer had left, my children had to stop going to school because we had no money to pay for their fees,\u201d he said. \u201cMugabe stole their education.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe (land) reform did not accomplish the desired objective,\u201d said Mlauzi. \u201cAnd Mugabe caused productive farmers to flee.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the 4 200 white farmers counted in Zimbabwe\u2019s last population census in 2000, only 400 work land in Zimbabwe, according to Freeth.<\/p>\n
Hopes raised by the change in regime were rapidly quashed.<\/p>\n
Mugabe\u2019s successor President Emmerson Mnangagwa pledged to revive the economy, but \u201cprices are soaring and our lives are even more difficult,\u201d said Mlauzi.<\/p>\n
Mugabe\u2019s death was a \u201cnon-event\u201d, said Freeth. \u201cHis legacy is still alive. A legacy of injustice, of absolute power and violence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Behind him, a cross pays tribute to Freeth\u2019s father-in-law, buried in a farm he can no longer access.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At its zenith, the Mount Carmel farm in northern Zimbabwe boasted 500 livestock and shipped its mangoes and lemons to Europe, a continent away. In 2009, that halcyon time ended abruptly when the farm was seized by thugs operating in the name of Robert Mugabe\u2019s land reform. Ten years later, Mount Carmel has just 15 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":3563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[128,30,609],"class_list":["post-13541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-community","tag-robert-mugabe","tag-white-farmer"],"yoast_head":"\n