Zimbabwe’s Minister of Land Reform and State Security, Didymus Mutasa together with his wife threatened a farmer with death telling him to leave in minutes on Saturday.

The minister visited a farm which belonged to Gavin Woest in Rusape in order to invade it, two witnesses have confirmed.

It is reported that he then told the Woest’s that they could only take with them their personal belongings but would now forfeit everything including the farm equipment and that of their carpentry workshop. All this had to be done within minutes on Saturday the 2^nd of January 2010 by 3pm.

‘’Bear in mind that this farm has been in the Woest’s family for over 50 years’’, an informant told ZimEye. The Woest’s were warned about this invasion the day Ray Finaughty’s family was evicted off their farm on Christmas Eve and the Woest’s were waiting under great tension for their eviction and after a couple of days, it was indeed their turn.

However, another witness to the fracas said that Mutasa threatened the farmer with death.

‘’The sad thing is that not only are the white families affected, but also all the farm workers and their families that are left unemployed and cannot feed their families and themselves’’, the informant further noted.

“One wonders if the police will intervene or not as Mutasa is a Government Official who is involved in the invasion,” she said

The farmer was ordered to leave with neither a court order nor a government listing directive which are legal requirements for a lawful removal. According to the law, valued compensation is also supposed to be paid before a person can be removed by force.

By ZIMEYE