UNDER SIEGE . . . Zimbabwe's distressed white commercial farmers (File photo)

HARARE – A Zimbabwean magistrate court on Tuesday gave four white farmers 24 hours to vacate their properties, the Commercial Framers Union (CFU) said on Tuesday.

The mainly white CFU, which last week criticised the power-sharing government between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai for failing to end chaos in the farming sector, said the magistrate ruled that the four farmers were guilty of refusing to vacate their properties.

The union said the farmers were slapped with a US$800 fine each and ordered to immediately move out of their homes and vacate their farms by Wednesday (today) evening – in a ruling that highlights worsening fortunes for Zimbabwe’s white farmers who have also come under increased attacks from Mugabe’s supporters since formation of the coalition government.

The evicted farmers are Algernon Taffs of Chirega Farm, Dawie Joubert of Stilfontein, Mike Odendaal of Hillcrest Farm, Mike Jahme of Silverton Farm – all from the southeastern district of Chipinge.

According to the CFU, the magistrate said if the four failed to vacate their properties as ordered by the court they would spend the next two years in jail and the union indicated that the farmers were preparing to appeal against the eviction orders.

"Under the Constitution of Zimbabwe everyone has the right to appeal but the magistrate denied them this right saying there was no doubt in his judgment. Urgent applications are currently taking place in Harare on behalf of the evicted farmers," the CFU said, adding; "The farmers are desperately moving their life's belongings into the local Dutch Reformed Church for safety."

The unity government of Mugabe and Tsvangirai has watched helplessly as members of the security forces and hardliner activists of Mugabe’s ZANU PF party intensified in recent weeks a drive to seize all land still in white hands, causing deep frustration among the farmers.

The beleaguered white farmers, in a strongly worded statement last week labelled the ongoing farm seizures a “crime against humanity” and called on the coalition government to act to end lawlessness on farms in keeping with the 2008 power-sharing agreement that gave birth to the administration.

Under the power-sharing agreement Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara, who is third signatory to the pact, promised to restore the rule of law in the farming sector, including carrying out a land audit to weed out multiple farm owners – nearly all of them senior ZANU PF officials who have hoarded most of the best farms seized from whites.

The coalition government is yet to act to fulfil the promise to restore law and order in the key agricultural sector, while more farms – including some owned by foreigners and protected under bilateral investment protection agreements between Zimbabwe and other nations – have been seized over the past few months.