Rhosarian 2019

The Rhosarian 1/19
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whole village community - men, women and
children - plus his own war vet contingent. He
said that Mount Lothian was a very bad farm and
that we treated our workers very badly, that Wendy
and I were supporters of the opposition party, the
MDC. He commanded five of our management
team to step forward from the group of workers:
our number one, Edward Hermes, the second-incommand,
Magodi Mvula, and three others.
They were told to sit down some way from the
crowd and take their Shoes off. This had
traditionally become the start of a season of
violence and flogging, as we had learned from the
terrorist war. After they had called Edward and
questioned him before the crowd, when he
courageously told the war vets that there was no
substance to any of the charges they were making,
they called Magodi. The same accusations were
levelled at him and, because he was responsible
for allocating work, he was regarded as an enemy
of the workers. They said he had subjected the
workers to unreasonable tasks. They said he was
a womanizer and that he would have to leave the
farm. By this time, passions were extremely
inflamed by mob frenzy. Magodi was then told to
lie down on the ground (all the war vets were
armed with strong sticks) and they said he was
going to be flogged. I stood beside him and spoke
quietly and said that he had earned our loyalty and
that he should not lie down and that I was not
going to allow him to be beaten. We walked up to
Kapesa and I told him exactly that. Then they
started assaulting Magodi and beating him.
Nicholas came to his aid and got soundly thrashed
for his pains. They did not actually attack me but,
after two or three minutes in the melee, they
ceased hostilities.
I admonished the war vets in Shona in the
strongest possible words and told them that what
they were doing was illegal and would be reported
to the police and the authorities. Meanwhile, the
police had arrived and became interested spectators
only. The war vets urged us to go back to the house
to discuss their grievances. We sat down on the
lawn and started to talk. Shortly, a message came
from the top village, where Magodi had his house,
to say that a group of war vets and some of our
own hostile women employees, who were enjoying
the opportunity of venting their fury on one of our
LOOKING BACK
October 2019
two senior managers, were looting his house.
Magodi’s family had a pleasant threebedroomed
home, which was well equipped with
modern conveniences. The war vets were hurling
the furniture, the beds, mattresses, his small electric
stove, TV and refrigerator, and odds and ends on
to the grass outside. Their actions were akin to a
maddened swarm of bees. Magodi, his wife and
small children were understandably terrified.
The war vet leader said Magodi should leave
the farm immediately and that if he was not gone
by sunset they would take him and he would never
be seen again. They said they knew where he lived
and that other war vets would be watching him at
his home in the rural area. Magodi asked me if he
could have the use of one of our three-tonne farm
trucks to take his goods, or what was left of what
had been accumulated over years, to his home in
the communal lands at Centenary. He and his
family left the farm to threats or retribution if he
was ever to return.
We renewed contact with Magodi a week later,
and for 18 months we met each month in Harare.
We had undertaken to pay his salary until the
madness subsided.
It was rumoured widely enough to be believed
that our ‘settler’, Matemachani had orchestrated
the whole scene. It seemed that the plan was to
take the farm from us and then to instil an
atmosphere of fear and intimidation throughout
the whole workforce to ensure compliance.
The war vets dispersed. I spoke to our own
employees and their families, told them that they
had our complete support and that we were farmers,
not politicians, that we were well known for the
way in which we looked after our workforce and
that they would be supported. The next day
everybody was at work until lunchtime, when the
agitators returned and co-opted six of our farmworkers.
These people went around the farm
telling workers to leave their jobs and go home.
Scene 5
Early next day the war vets returned in force
and said that the farm was not to operate in any
way. The pigs were not even to be fed or watered,
the cows should not be milked, irrigation was to
cease, and if anybody was found doing those jobs
they would be severely punished.