CLAIM: Most white farmers were murdered in the evictions. A genocide took place in Zimbabwe men women and children were cut down like blades of grass, their crime was BEING WHITE
SOURCE: Social media posts
VERDICT: Misleading
Newly inaugurated American President Donald Trump recently threw South Africa a curve ball stating in an interview that the USA will be cutting aid to the southern african country pending investigations; ‘It’s only South Africa, terrible things are happening in South Africa, the leadership is doing some terrible things, horrible things… so that’s under investigation right now, we’re making determinations and until such time as we find out what South Africa is doing – they’re taking away land, their confiscating land and actually they’re doing things that are perhaps far worse than that’.
This was followed by a post on X, previously Twitter, from Secretary of State, Marco Rubio that he will not be attending a G20 meeting slated for South Africa, ‘I will NOT attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg.
South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote “solidarity, equality, & sustainability.” In other words: DEI and climate change. My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism’.
Not surprisingly, discussions on X quickly went to the Zimbabwean fast track land reform programme (FTLRP). The claims are that South Africa has become like Zimbabwe, which ‘slaughtered a lot of the white farmers’.
There have been a number of similar claims over the years. One account here posted, ‘Most white farmers were murdered in the evictions. A genocide took place in Zimbabwe men women and children were cut down like blades of grass, their crime was BEING WHITE‘.
Another wrote, ‘Which African nation killed and purged all the white farmers and then wound up starving because none of them could do what the farmers did. Zimbabwe, that’s it. LOL! Wakanda Forever! LOL. Can’t even run farm equipment. LOL.’
And another, ‘They killed white farmers in Zimbabwe and now they brazenly deny that they did it. They can’t hide the truth. People remember their family and friends who were slaughtered’.
Others claimed that it was Zimbabweans nationals killing South African white farmers, ‘Zimbabweans killed white farmers in Zimbabwe. They are continuing their killing spree of white farmers in SA. Anyways, this is employer & employee business. Nothing to do with me🚮🚮🚮🚮’.
Similar claims were made here.
It is true that white farmers were killed during Zimbabwe’s FTLRP and land invasions which started in 2000. But, how many exactly? Reports on this vary.
An academic paper written in 2001, titled The Land Crisis in Zimbabwe: Getting Beyond the Myopic Focus Upon Black and White, put the number of white farmers killed by mid 2000, at six.
This is corroborated by a Human Rights Watch report, which put the number at 7 by the end of 2000.
In the following year, two more farmers were killed, including the mother of one of the first victims, Martin Olds.
Former Movement for Democratic Change member of Parliament, Eddie Cross, in an opinion published by PoliticsWeb in 2017, puts the number at 28. This is from 2000 to 2014.
The Commercial Farmers Union puts the number at 29 for the period 2000 to 2016.
It should be noted that these lists include white farmers murdered during the commission of crimes and not as part of farm invasions. For instance, Mary Austen was attacked at her family farm by unknown assailants in Kwekwe in 2008. The farm was not occupied. While she is included in Cross’ list, she is not on the CFU one.
Malcolm Francis and his daughter, Cathrine, were attacked while taking a walk, while Bertram Gardner was murdered by two hitch hikers he had offered a lift.
Farm Murders Since 2000 (CFU and Cross lists merged)
1. David Stephens 15 April 2000
2. Martin Olds 18 April 2000
3. Allan Stewart Dunn 7 May 2000
4. Henry Swan Elsworth 12 December 2000
5. John Weeks 14 May 2000
6. Tony Oates 31 May 2000
7. Willem Botha 23 July 2000
8. Gloria Olds 4 March 2001
9. Robert Fenwick Cobbet 6 August 2001
10. Terrence Ford 18 March 2002
11. Thomas Samson Bayley 1 May 2002
12. Charles Anderson 2 June 2002
13. Pieter Silverton January 2004
14. Ole Sunde 6 February 2005
15. Donald Stewart 26 November 2005
16. Phillip Tenant 1 April 2006
17. Mary Austen 17 November 2008
18. Bob Vaughan Evans 7 July 2009
19. Ray van Rensburg 16 July 2009
20. Sophia Hart 29 August 2009
21. Kobus Joubert 26 October 2010
22. Lourens Abrams Korsten 28 February 2011 (Assaulted 31 December 2010)
23. Mike Campbell 6 April 2011 (Complications from 2008 assault)
24. Colin Zietsman 2 September 2011
25. Keith Nicholson 14 September 2011
26. Bobby Ervine 8 April 2012 (Assaulted on 2 October 2011)
27. Catherine Francis 14 May 2014 (Assaulted on 10 May 2014)
28. Malcolm Francis 20 May 2014 (Assaulted on 10 May 2014)
29. Adolph Willem Botha 6 May 2016
30. Bertram Gardner 19 June 2016
The Forgotten Victims
Not only were white farmers killed during the land invasions, blacks were, too. Overt attacks on white farmers attracted greater international and national publicity than those on black Zimbabweans. Unlike their white employers, these victims are not recorded by name. An academic paper quoted earlier, is one of the few that also mentions black victims. By the end of May 2000 when six white farmers had been killed, thirty four black people working on these farms had also been killed.
The Human Rights Watch quotes a National Employment Council for the agricultural industry (a tripartite body of government, employers, and unions) June 2000 report that put the number of black people who had been killed as a result of the farm occupations, at twenty six; 1,600 assaulted, eleven raped and at least 3,000 displaced from their homes. The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum documented the deaths of four farm workers (including security guards and game scouts) and numerous assaults during 2001. The CFU reported twenty farm workers killed as of May 2001.
Cross in an article in 2017, puts the number of black farm managers who lost their lives at 78. He does not, however, provide a source for this number.
Conclusion
Claims that during Zimbabwe’s FTLRP and land invasions ‘most white farmers were murdered in the evictions. A genocide took place in Zimbabwe men women and children were cut down like blades of grass, their crime was BEING WHITE’ and that Zimbabwe ‘slaughtered a lot of the white farmers’ are false and misleading. White farmers were, indeed, killed. The highest number of deaths is 29, given by the Commercial Farmers Union, occurring between 2000 and 2016. This figure includes white farmers murdered in crimes unrelated to land occupation. There were no children killed. At least thirty four black people had been killed in one year of the invasions – in the year 2000. Some uncorroborated reports put the total of the unnamed black farm managers and workers killed by 2017 at 78.
