Harare - The wife of Zimbabwe's army commander threatened to kill a white farmer, telling him as she occupied his farm that she had "not tasted white blood" for 22 years, according to court documents obtained here on Wednesday.
Jocelyn Chiwenga, a senior figure in President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party and her husband, Lieutenant-General Constantine Chiwenga, the commander of the army, were ordered by high court judge Anele Matika to stop selling the export produce of the farm she and her husband illegally occupied in April this year.
Roger Staunton, owner of the 1 275ha farm, Shepherd Hall, about 30km east of Harare, said Mrs Chiwenga arrived at his homestead on May 23, "breathing fire," according to affidavits accepted by the judge.
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With her were several men carrying AK47 automatic rifles, said Constantine Mkiya, Staunton's lawyer.
"They were not in uniform, but because of her husband's position in the army, we are confident they were soldiers," he said.
When Staunton offered a handshake, "she told me she had no intention of shaking hands with a white pig," the farmer said.
"She stated that she had not tasted white blood since 1980 (independence) and missed the experience, and that she needed just the slightest excuse to kill somebody," said Staunton.
"She ordered one of her guards to 'kill the white bastards'," he said. The gunman cocked his weapon, but did not open fire.
General Chiwenga is reported to have been allocated another highly sophisticated farm in the Marondera district, in an area where one of his neighbours is Air Marshal Perence Shiri, the commander of the air force who has forced about 300 previously resettled peasants to get off the farm he has seized.
During the occupation, Mrs Chiwenga declared herself to be "the new Mbuya Nehanda," a woman spirit medium venerated in Zimbabwe as the leader of an uprising against white occupation in 1896.
Staunton said she also boasted she was "filthy rich."
Staunton said the Chiwengas gave him five days to leave the farm, and took over the entire property and all its assets - including buildings, trucks, irrigation equipment, and a major rose and greenhouse project - worth Z$1-billion (about US$20-million - or about R211-million - at the official exchange rate).
She also illegally sold his greenhouse vegetables and roses to export companies for about Z$85-million, said Staunton.
Staunton said the Chiwengas first promised him they would compensate him fully for the property, and pressured him into agreeing not to take them to court or to publicise the incident in the press.
Staunton said that after the violence and intimidation surrounding the occupation, "I considered myself lucky" to have been offered compensation.
However, he said, since then the Chiwenga's "have come out into the open and told me in no uncertain terms that they were not going to compensate me as I had made enough profits over the years, using the land stolen from them."
Staunton said he reported the seizure to vice-president Joseph Msika, who is in charge of the regime's "land acquisition programme."
When Mrs Chiwenga heard, she told the farmer that Msika had "no balls" and was incapable of removing them from the farm. She said that "next time she would see me, I could be in a coffin," Staunton said.
Staunton is undergoing treatment in South Africa for a heart ailment caused by the stress of the Chiwenga's occupation.
On Monday this week, Matika granted an urgent order for the Chiwengas to stop harvesting or selling the produce from the farm, and also ordered Hortico, an agent which sells Zimbabwean produce to Europe, from buying from the Chiwengas.
Staunton is also applying for an order for the Chiwengas to leave the farm and to allow him to return and continue farming. - Sapa
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