Ain't democracy grand? Especially in Africa, where Africans interpret it slightly differently to the West. The African way is that if they want something that belongs to someone else, they attack and/or murder the owner and take it. This applies to women, items and land. In Zimbabwe for example, Mugabe decided a few years ago that things were running too smoothly - he is used to mayhem and violence. So, he woke up one morning and decided that Whites were not entitled to their land any longer. His people (namely his fellow terrorists and politicians) went shopping and picked out which farms they wanted. Only the best for these guys. Once decided, they drove the farmers off their land under the guise of returning the land to its rightful owners. Now, Zimbabwe is a big country with many thousands of acres of uninhabited land which he could have 'given' to his fellow war criminals as land payment, but he chose farms which had been built up over many years with a lot of hard work and sweat. A farm doesn't become successful overnight. Once the farmers were intimidated or murdered off their lands, the so-called war veterans and politicians took ownership and moved in. Mugabe himself owns a few of these farms - and so does his wife. It was payback time in his eyes. And what has happened to his country since? Well, from being the enviable bread basket of Africa and the world, it is now the begging basket with thousands of people living in poverty, no food and many fleeing to neighbouring countries. And today this trend continues. Once again a former farmer is languishing in jail, having been arrested for failing to appear in court over a legal battle over the rights of his property. Having been forced off his farm a few years ago, he retired to a plot in Vumba, which a police officer now has his eye on. So, how does this police officer get the 74 year old to agree to giving it to him? He organisers for the farmer to be arrested and kept in jail until he relents and gives the property up. This is what Zimbabweans have had to put up with over the past two decades. And today we have the UN and Amnesty preaching to countries like Australia on how to better treat their refugees, whilst ignoring Zimbabwe and the thugs who run it. Go figure.
74 year old Peter Hingeston was arrested almost two weeks ago after failing to appear in court, in connection with the legal battle over his rights to his property.
His absence from court was on medical grounds, but instead of being fined or reprimanded as is usually expected under these circumstances, Hingeston was thrown behind bars.
Hingeston’s stay in custody has been drawn out for almost two weeks, with repeated delays to his bail hearings. Last Friday, after a week behind bars, his bail was postponed because the police ‘mislaid’ his case documents.
On Tuesday efforts to have him released were once again delayed when the hearing was postponed to Thursday, with no reasons given for this decision. The hearing has now been postponed once again, this time to next week Monday, meaning Hingeston will stay in custody for a third week.
Meanwhile his trial for prosecution under the Gazetted Land (Consequential Provisions) Act for his alleged illegal occupation of his retirement home in the Vumba Mountains is due to start on Friday.
Hingeston was forced off his Lowveld sugar cane farm in the mid 2000s and ‘retired’ to a house and plot of land in Vumba. But it’s believed that a top police official wants that property and for the last four years Hingeston has been fighting to stay there.
Charles Taffs, the President of the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), told SW Radio Africa this week that ‘the game’ being played to keep Hingeston behind bars is an attempt to force him to hand over his land.
0 comments:
Post a Comment