By Farisai Gonye 

HARARE – More than 20 people sustained serious injuries following violent clashes as war veterans, villagers, and ZANU-PF supporters ganged up to block the eviction of a white farmer by militias aligned to a top ruling party official in Zimbabwe’s rich eastern farming district of Burma Valley. 

The clashes, which have been going on for the past week, only stopped after Manicaland provincial governor Tinaye Chigudu promised the villagers that he would personally take up the issue with President Robert Mugabe and have the white farmer's eviction reversed. 

The local traditional chief, Eddie Musabayana, war veterans from the area, villagers, and ZANU-PF supporters told Chigudu during a meeting to calm tempers at Mapetu Farm last Monday that they would "continue laying their lives on the line" to protect white farmer Heather Guild. 

Chigudu's delegation included Manicaland provincial police commander Obert Benge and senior government officials. 

Guild is facing eviction from Fungai Chaeruka, a ZANU-PF official appointed to head Mutare City Council following the dismissal of an opposition-led council in 2005. 

According to eye-witnesses who attended the meeting, the villagers told Chigudu that ZANU-PF risked losing their support in elections planned for next year if Guild was removed from the farm. 

When ZimOnline visited the area at the weekend, the atmosphere in the surrounding villages was tense, with some villagers claiming that militias aligned to Chaeruka had destroyed an onion crop worth over $1 billion after destroying irrigation equipment to force Guild off the farm. 

Among those injured was a prominent elderly ZANU-PF activist identifying herself as Eunah Matimba. 

"We have been fighting Chaeruka's militias since last week. We cannot allow Guild to be removed because she has immensely assisted the community here," 62-year-old Matimba told ZimOnline. 

Chigudu confirmed the clashes but claimed he "was now on top of the situation". 

"There was a bad situation in Burma Valley. The locals want the farmer to stay and I am taking it up to avoid a situation that might end up turning fatal. The locals are united that Comrade Chaeruka could have sabotaged the country by destroying the crops," Chigudu said. 

Musabayana also confirmed the clashes and warned that the villagers would "fight" Chaeruka to the end. 

"We are united, the war veterans, our people and the party (ZANU-PF) here that the land reform is no longer about removing white farmers. We want her to stay and work with her,” said Musabayana. 

“As for Chaeruka, wherever he derives his power, we will resist him and he will find no peace here. His militias will be driven out no doubt," the chief warned. 

The government has since the beginning of the year given conflicting signals on the fate of remaining white farmers, with some officials saying they would be allowed to stay while others are saying they would be evicted. 

The evictions have continued sporadically. 

Zimbabwe, in the grip of its worst ever economic crisis, has since 2000 relied on food imports and handouts from international humanitarian groups due to failure by new black farmers to maintain production on farms taken from the whites. - ZimOnline