As elections approach in Zimbabwe, a farmer has been found guilty of staying on his farm after the state declared it stolen (by them).
Deon Theron, 53, has reached the end of an extraordinary trial in which, his lawyers say, he has been denied basic justice by court officials desperate to score political points before the most important elections for Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.
On Tuesday, after what little evidence in the trial had been presented, the Harare magistrate refused to allow Mr Theron’s lawyer to deliver a closing submission and answer accusations that her client had occupied his farm illegally after it was declared state property. Instead, he summarily found Mr Theron guilty, stating that he had “blatantly” defied the law.
This sounds like a scene straight from Atlas Shrugged.
Mr Theron has a herd of 400 dairy cattle on his 400ha farm in the Beatrice district, about 70km south of Harare. It supplies 8000litres of fresh milk to Harare - 2 per cent of the daily consumption of the capital - every day. Milk is scarce in supermarkets and has to be bought at exorbitant prices on the black market.
Another 12 dairy farmers in the district are being hounded by ruling party apparatchiks trying to grab their farms and livestock.
