09/01/2004

Former farm workers in Zimbabwe have generally opted to stay on the farms. In the majority of cases, the former farm workers have only left under extreme duress. Very often, former farm workers are "trapped" on the land. Those who remain on the farms have few livelihood options and their future is bleak. The elderly parents of a farm worker that RI interviewed told us that there had been an outbreak of malaria on the farm. One said, "The former farmer used to drain the standing water on the farm but the war vets broke his equipment when they chased him off the farm. When the new settlers came, they threatened to evict us if we complained about the conditions. Our relations with the new settlers are not good. They do not pay us. Hunger forces us to go there but we have no choice."