One of the last commercial farm remaining in white hands in Zimbabwe was seized by the country’s minister of agriculture, according to the coun-try’s online news service, ZimOnline in exile.

Deputy Agriculture Minister and Zanu PF parliamentarian for Mhondoro constituency, Sylvester Nguni, Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma and one Albert Washaya, have joined in the fresh wave of farm seizures by occu-pying a prime farming estate belonging to listed agro-exporter Ariston Holdings. Information pieced together by the Zimbabwean newspaper Finan-cial Gazette this week revealed that the three have laid a claim on Kent Estates, a 10,000 hectare farm in Norton under the renewed land seizures being backed by the governing Zanu PF party. The three are alleged to have produced allocation letters signed by the then Lands and Land Reform and Resettlement Minister John Nkomo in March 2005 to the proprietors of the farm, ordering Ariston to leave one of the richest agricultural areas in the country. The agro-processor has been operating on the farm for 15 years.

Zvoma is claiming 940 hectares, Nguni 780 ha while Washaya is taking hold of 600 ha, according to the Financial Gazette. "Those who are connected have big tracts of land," sources close to the new invasions said this week. The other letters in the possession of another group of invaders, which includes a man only identified as Shonhiwa, are dated from September 2005.

Ariston, one of Zimbabwe’s largest cut flower, tea and coffee producers, are leasing Kent Estate from Zimco, a Belgian firm since 50 years. Zimco’s investments are exempted from forced seizures under the Bilateral Investment and Protection Agreement (BIPA). The officials’ embarrassing actions come just weeks after central bank governor Gideon Gono and Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa condemned the new wave of farm invasions.

Gono and Murerwa, who are attempting to right Zimbabwe’s six-year old economic crisis, say the invasions will negatively affect next year’s harvests and imprison Zimbabwe in an infinite food deficit. An attempt to show the occupiers a lease agreement which exempts the farm from seizure, has proved ineffective. Ariston has also shown the invaders an agreement the produce and flower exporter signed in 2002 with Agriculture Minister Joseph Made in which it ceded 4,500 hectares to the government to parcel out to A2 and A1 farmers and asked them to take up that land which is only farmed by a handful of A1 farmers.

However, they rebuffed the offer, insisting that their subdivisions are in the place where Ariston is operating. Zvoma, who was in Botswana attending a SADC Parliamentary Forum meeting this week, confirmed moving into Kent and rebuffed Ariston’s offer. "We have no mandate to do our own land reform," Zvoma said yesterday. He claimed that Kent had been acquired by the government long back for the purposes of resettlement and accused Ariston of possessing other farms. "They have a lot of farms," Zvoma alleged.

Sources said the invaders at Kent Estates, which recently introduced the Richel computerised greenhouse project that regulates and monitors temperature and humidity on horticultural products, were being driven by greed in their annexation of a productive farm whose export value is estimated at US$1 million a year.

"It is just greed and this is taking out emotional thinking," sources said. "The invasion is causing so much uncertainty among the workers."

Sources alleged that Zvoma, who they believed had been growing tobacco at a farm in Raffingora, had told them "hakuna mvura" (there is no water to irrigate crops) while in subsequent dialogue he insisted that his farm was allocated to someone else.

Zvoma confirmed owning the Raffingora farm but said he had surrendered it for the more lucrative Kent Estate. "The place wasn’t suitable," said Zvoma. "So I applied to be relocated to a different place that is suitable for the kind of activities that I am pursuing. We discussed with Ariston for a smooth transition and I will be moving in immediately when I arrive from Botswana".

Nguni was recently quoted in the media admitting that the country had run out of food because land seized from whites was given to amateurs with no "passion for farming". The minister also admitted claiming entitlement to Kent. "I have been offered land at Kent Estate," said Nguni in a terse response. On allegations that he had previously been allocated a piece of land where he was undertaking horticultural projects, Nguni said he had long disinvested from the project.

Frantic efforts were being made by Ariston executives to have an audience with State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa before he left for China this week . Mutasa, who is widely considered the most powerful cabinet minister, is also in charge of the extra portfolio of Lands, Lands Reform and Resettlement.

Kent is the biggest outgrower to conglomerate CFI Holdings. It produces 1.2 million chickens a year, breeds 1,000 head of beef cattle and grows roses and flowers, which Ariston exports to the EU. In the year to December, Kent contributed an after-tax profit of $28 billion to Ariston’s profits.