White farmers evicted as deadline for land handover passes

(9 Sep 2002)
1. Wide shot entrance to Swales' farmhouse 'Keiray Estate'
2. Various exteriors of farmhouse
3. Mid shot family's belongings in truck
4. Family's belongings being loaded onto truck
5. Various people taking furniture out of house
6. White farmer, Debbie Swales, talking to people in garden
7. Farmworkers moving belongings
8. SOUNDBITE : (English) Debbie Swales, White Farmer:
"We are not giving up. I don't believe the way this is being done is fair at all. We've had no say in the matter, we have taken, or the government has taken us to court over the farm, we won the case but they are still adamant that they are going to throw us out. Of course we're not going to give up, because it is not fair what is going on here."
9. Wide shot Swales family outside house
10. Debbie Swales walking through house, crying
11. Mid shot Debbie Swales being comforted
12. Black farmworkers watching
13. Various black farmworkers carrying furniture
14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Stanley Chabikwa, Black Farmworker:
"If the government takes the farm like this what are the people going to do and what are we going to live when we don't have employment? The most important thing is that if we don't have employment we're going to starve, and our children and everything is going to be more difficult for us, so we have to see what we can do for employment."
15. Various of Debbie Swales looking round empty house and packing her bags
16. High shot of garden from window in house
17. SOUNDBITE: (English) Debbie Swales, White Farmer:
"The case was dismissed from court because the government showed no interest in our farm because maybe it is is a productive farm - I don't know they had their various reasons - but we were then told that this farm was de-listed. One of the constables who came today, was in the group who originally came to tell the settlers on this farm that this farm was now de-listed and they had one year to pack their bags basically and get off the property."
18. Various farmworkers killing chickens
19. Various trucks leaving farm with Swales' belongings
STORYLINE:
The Zimbabwean government intensified efforts to evict white farmers on Monday after issuing a weekend deadline for them to leave their land to allow landless blacks to occupy the farms.
In Darwendale ,150 kilometres (94 miles) north of the capital Harare, the Swales family left their land after government officials arrived and told the family they were being evicted.
Packing their belongings onto vehicles, the Swales left Keiray estate, and said they feared they would never return.
For Debbie Swales and her husband Raynel, the eviction came as a shock.
Two weeks ago the couple said they won a High Court appeal to legally remain on their land. But on Monday, authorities arrived at their farmhouse, and told the couple and their family they had to leave.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has earmarked about 95 percent of Zimbabwe's white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks. The land seizure policies and drought have contributed to widespread food shortages.
Police visited several areas of the country over the weekend, giving them until Sunday (September 8) to vacate their properties or face arrest.
The weekend warnings to farmers came after Mugabe, returning from the Earth Summit in neighbouring South Africa, vowed to crack down on defiant whites.
Zimbabwe has been gripped by more than two years of political turmoil, widely blamed on the increasingly unpopular ruling party.
Aid agencies say more than half Zimbabwe's people face severe food shortages.

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