The Commercial Farmers Union was so divided at its 59th congress in 2002 that it was literally grasping at straws in the forlorn hope that its members could be spared by cooperating on land reform with the government.
According to a cable released by Wikileaks, United States embassy officials who attended the congress doubted whether the union would have another congress after that.
The congress was held at a time when the first tranche of 1800 of the CFU’s remaining 3000 plus members were facing a midnight August 8 deadline to vacate their farms, totalling some 2 500 properties, or face fines and possible imprisonment.
“The CFU appeared dispirited, unusually disorganised, and increasingly a spent force,” the cable says..
“The ZANU-PF instinct for crushing any opposition to its monopoly on power, so ably displayed in its dealings with the MDC, would appear to extend to the CFU as well.”
Full cable:
Viewing cable 02HARARE1819, GLOOMY COMMERCIAL FARMERS’ UNION CONGRESS ADJOURNS
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 001819
SIPDIS
STATE FOR AF/S, AF/EX
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR JFRAZER
LONDON FOR CGURNEY
PARIS FOR CNEARY
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/07/2012
SUBJECT: GLOOMY COMMERCIAL FARMERS’ UNION CONGRESS ADJOURNS
AS SECTION 8 EVICTION DEADLINE LOOMS
Classified By: CHG REWhitehead due to 1.5 (b) and (d).
¶1. (C) Summary. The 59th annual Commercial Farmers, Union
(CFU) Congress was a gloomy affair that took place under the
pall of an August 8 deadline for the eviction of the majority
of CFU members from their farms. There was unusual division
within CFU ranks over whether or not to mount court
challenges to the eviction orders as well as to an expensive
and compulsory worker retrenchment package, or whether to
continue the elected CFU leadership,s thus far fruitless
attempt at non-confrontational dialogue with the GOZ. There
was also a split between farmers who will remain on their
farms in defiance of the deadline, and those who had chosen
to vacate. Acting Agriculture Minister Ignatius Chombo and
several other ZANU-PF heavyweights attended the closing
ceremony, which was addressed by Vice President Joseph Msika.
His remarks contained little new, and yielded nothing
promising on the looming Section 8 deadline. Msika concluded
with a pointed threat to the Justice for Agriculture (JAG)
group, which has split from the CFU and favors legal
confrontation with the GOZ. In his response, CFU President
Cloete pitched for dialogue and an extension of the eviction
deadline, which prompted a scornful response from Chombo and
other GOZ hardliners in a following press interview. CFU
leaders attempted to put a positive spin on Msika,s more
conciliatory remarks — a stretch from where we sat — as
what may have been the last CFU Congress adjourned. End
summary.
—————–
A Mournful Affair
—————–
¶2. (SBU) Econoff attended preliminary open sessions of the
CFU Congress, and the Charge participated in the closing
ceremony. It was a gloomy affair overall, given that the
first tranche of 1,800 of the CFU,s remaining 3,000 plus
members were facing a midnight August 8 deadline to vacate
their farms, totaling some 2,500 properties, or face fines
and possible imprisonment. The strain of the deadline
compounded by three years of violence and stress had clearly
taken their toll on the CFU. In closed sessions, there were
reportedly deep internal fissures in what has traditionally
been a very cohesive group. The sessions featured heated
exchanges over whether or not the CFU should challenge
exorbitant GOZ-mandated retrenchment packages for their farms
workers in court, or whether the increasingly cash-strapped
farmers should pay the severance, as mandated by law, before
leaving their properties. The CFU took no formal decision on
whether members should leave their farms before the eviction
deadline, largely because there was a lack of consensus on
this point. Some delegates stated that they intended to defy
the deadline, while others said that they would vacate
temporarily and see what transpired.
———————————————
Msika Calls for Unity, Then Rattles the Saber
———————————————
¶3. (SBU) A surprisingly top-heavy ZANU-PF delegation
composed of VP Msika (acting President in Mugabe,s absence);
Minister of Local Government, Works, and Housing (and acting
Agriculture Minister) Ignatius Chombo; hard-line Mashonaland
West Chanetsa, and Minister of State Olivia Muchena attended
the closing ceremony. Following an oleaginous introduction
by Chombo and a fulsome welcome by CFU President Colin
Cloete, Msika proceeded to review GOZ policy over the past
year, including the Section 5 and 8 seizure mechanism and the
mandated limitations on farm sizes. He stressed that the
fast track land reform program would move forward to
completion but that it would respect its own iternal
regulations. He made no specific mention of any grace period
for the August 8 deadline but noted that the GOZ has delisted
689 farms comprising a total of 1.69 million hectares
¶4. (SBU) Msika expressed the GOZ,s willingness to continue
dealing with the Zimbabwean Joint Resettlement Initiative
(ZJRI), a CFU-backed attempt to identify and donate
commercial farmland for resettlement, complete with a
financial package to assist the resettled farmers start up.
However, he criticized the slowness of the effort and the
limited amount of land offered up and accused the CFU of
resisting land reform from the outset. Msika added that he
hoped that within the next year the “white” CFU and the
“indigenous” Zimbabwean Farmers’ Union would be blended into
a single organization. He delivered a blunt warning to the
“small clique amongst you” ) clearly the dissident JAG —
who favored confrontation with government over dialogue. He
stressed that they would face “the full wrath of the law” and
that the government would not be deterred from action by
external influence.
¶5. (SBU) On a more conciliatory note, Msika declared that he
was not and had never been a racist, that he deplored racism,
and that his reference to “our people” extended across the
color line to all Zimbabweans. He further insisted that
there was room and space for all who wished to stay and
encouraged CFU members who wished to farm to complete and
submit the required forms expeditiously, or even to contact
his office. He announced that no one would be rendered
homeless by the land reform process.
————
The Response
————
¶6. (SBU) CFU President Cloete responded by pointing out that
the CFU had always opted for dialogue with the GOZ, which
until recently had been refused. He noted that the GOZ had
offered no mechanism through which lands identified by the
ZJRI could be transferred. He bemoaned the chaos and
warlordism associated with the fast track program, and
lamented the breakdown of law and order that had translated
into violence against, and even the murder of, many farmers.
Cloete rejected the confrontational approach of the JAG and
said that the CFU stood ready to work with the Government.
He urged the Government to re-examine the Section 8 deadline
before it came into effect.
¶7. (SBU) A representative of the commercial farmers of
Namibia delivered a pledge of solidarity for the CFU and
requested concrete proposals on how their Namibian
counterparts could be of assistance. A Mr. Roth representing
Agric SA, a South African counterpart group, subsequently
took the floor and in an unexpected turn of events proceeded
to lambaste the GOZ for “outrageous economic policies that
were ruining Zimbabwe and harming the region.” He continued
in the same vein, with the CFU leaders at the head table
squirming and the ZANU-PF heavyweights in the front row
increasingly outraged as Roth blasted the “wimpy” South
African Government for its lack of response and castigated
“other countries represented here” for sitting on their
hands.
———–
The Fallout
———–
¶8. (C) Charge spoke with CFU Vice Presidents Douglas
Taylor-Freeme and William Hughes following the ceremony.
Taylor-Freeme, who has been on and off his farm in the
volatile Chinhoyi region for several months, confirmed that
he would pass the weekend at Lake Kariba and take stock of
what follows. Hughes said that he would return to his farm
an hour outside of Harare and take his chances. He explained
that the farm was valued at Zimbabwe dollar 1.4 billion (USD
2 million at the parallel rate) and that he and his family
had no holdings of any kind outside of Zimbabwe. He had no
choice but to stick it out, although he hoped that if he were
forcibly expelled, it would be by police arrest and not mob
action. Taylor-Freeme estimated that 1,200-1,400 of the
1,800 affected were still on their farms, but he did not have
accurate information on how many would stay put in spite of
the deadline. Both he and Hughes believed that violent
episodes were unlikely, but could only speculate on hotspots
or the potential magnitude of the problem. The outcome would
determine how other CFU members remaining on their farms
would react as their own Section 8 deadlines fell due.
¶9. (C) Hughes was surprisingly upbeat on Msika,s remarks,
focusing on the “room for all” and positive ZJRI rhetoric.
He admitted that the “no one left homeless” remark was
mystifying, in that a large number of farmers who had been
driven off their farms before the Section 8 deadline are for
all practical purposes already homeless. Hughes said that
many others are either broke or deeply in debt, their plight
further aggravated by the GOZ-mandated retrenchment packages.
He scoffed at Msika,s mention of 689 Setion 8 delistings,
noting that this had been handled strictly along color lines
and that virtually all beneficiaries have been indigenous
Zimbabwean farmers. He said that 98 percent of
non-indigenous farms have been listed and offered the view
that the remaining two percent had been temporarily spared by
administrative oversights.
¶10. (C) The ZANU-PF contingent marched out in formation
immediately after the closing session, and their take can
only be judged from the government press, which accurately
reflected Msika,s remarks. It also quoted Chombo as
labeling the Congress as “lily white” and “racist” with “raw
attitudes” that “refuse to share land.” Minister of State
Olivia Muchena echoed him, accusing the CFU members of
“racist tactics” and predicting that “what is happening in
Zimbabwe is also going to take place to white racist farmers
in South Africa.”
——-
Comment
——-
¶11. (C) The CFU appeared dispirited, unusually disorganized,
and increasingly a spent force. Neither Taylor-Freeme nor
Hughes could provide precise figures on how many CFU members
remain on the farms or how many have already emigrated, a
startling admission from an organizaton that a year ago was
probably the best organized and informed lobby in Zimbabwe.
Hughes, who is leaving his Vice Presidential slot, said that
the CFU executive is downsizing and that he will not be
replaced. The CFU has been unable to find a qualified
replacement for its public relations director, who defected
to JAG, and has no accurate figures on how many of its
members have actually followed her lead. Cloete made it
clear, however, that despite these challenges the CFU
leadership remains committed to dealing non-confrontatially
with the GOZ. As Hughes pointed out, Mugabe himself has
already stated that the GOZ will not respect court decisions
that it does not agree with, and the regime has at its
disposal all the forces required to counter a strategy of
confrontation.
¶12. (C) Hughes’ attempt at a positive take on Msika,s
remarks struck us as grasping at straws. Msika said nothing
new in the speech, and his rhetoric about space for all,
unity, and a home for everyone has not been borne out by
developments on the ground. Barring a prompt and radical GOZ
policy change over the next few days, highly unlikely in
Mugabe,s absence, we take Msika,s statements as words for
the wind. The ZANU-PF instinct for crushing any opposition
to its monopoly on power, so ably displayed in its dealings
with the MDC, would appear to extend to the CFU as well. The
question that was never answered at the glum 59th CFU
Congress was whether or not this would be its last. End
Comment.
WHITEHEAD
(26 VIEWS)
