Farmers ousted by Mugabe scratch a living in Zambia

Graham Rae was among the most productive white farmers in Zimbabwe and employed hundreds of black workers before he was branded an "economic saboteur" by supporters of Robert Mugabe and thrown off his land.

Today, as with other once-prosperous farmers who suffered the same fate, Mr Rae has had to start again from scratch in neighbouring Zambia, going cap in hand to investors at a time when he should have been preparing for retirement.

Mr Rae and his colleagues were, not so long ago, among the wealthiest of Zimbabweans. But, because of President Mugabe's violent confiscation of their land, many white farmers are now forced to make a living selling hamburgers in Europe while others have become shopkeepers, waiters and waitresses in countries as far afield as Australia and America.

Mr Rae is among those who accepted offers of huge tracts of land in neighbouring countries. Mr Mugabe has banned them from taking their equipment and has refused to compensate them for equipment left behind as required by law. He has also ignored calls from the Zambian government to allow the farmers to recover their goods. The British Government has steadfastly refused to help the farmers, arguing that to do so would amount to bankrolling Mr Mugabe's chaotic land reforms.

Peter MacSporran, a former president of the white Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), said: "I am 53 years old now but I have to start from where I was 30 years ago. Unfortunately, our wealth was in our land and we can't move it. We can't move the houses we had built for ourselves and our children, we can't move the dams we had built, the huge barns we had erected for our crops ... It's sad."

Mr Rae had built the largest privately owned dam on one of his two farms. Soon after President Mugabe announced the land would be redistributed, rampaging supporters classified Mr Rae as an "economic saboteur" for resisting their drive to confiscate white farms for the black majority.

He was one of the first farmers to be harassed when Mr Mugabe unleashed his supporters in the state-sponsored drive to occupy and seize white farms in February 2000. Mr Rae said: "The war veterans stormed my property and called me a 'f***ing white pig'. My labour was beaten and my property was looted. I couldn't do anything. I had to pay huge amounts of money for permission to harvest my own crop."

Mr MacSporran and another white farmer, Vernon Nicoll, suffered the same fate. Mr MacSporran said: "It became impossible to farm. We were just not able to work our land due to the disturbances."

The challenges and difficulties of having to start all over again persuaded the three farmers to join forces to kickstart a farming project when they moved to Zambia, where they now lease arable parts of a 22,000-hectare farm.

After a long, tortuous process of being turned away by banks and financial institutions, the three eventually found one willing to lend them US$3m (£1.9m) to build a dam and grow crops. Their prospects now largely depend on weather patterns this year in the drought-hit country. They said it would take at least seven years of hard work for their farming project to develop to the same level as the properties they abandoned in Zimbabwe.

These farmers might be considered the lucky ones. Most of the others who moved to Zambia have been less fortunate.

Spencer Connelly, 58, lost everything. Many of his personal belongings were confiscated by Mr Mugabe's so-called war veterans. Mr Connelly moved to Zambia, where he was unable to start anything on his own. Despite having been a landowner in his own right, Mr Connelly now has a job as a tobacco manager.

Dave Craft, a farmer, tried to rescue a black farm manager who was under attack from the war veterans on New England Farm in central Zimbabwe. He was charged by the partisan Zimbabwe Republic Police with inciting public violence and was eventually chased off his land and fled to Zambia. He is now a worker on the property leased by Mr MacSporran and his partners.

More than 50 farmers have now settled in Zambia, to an enthusiastic welcome from the government, although farmers find it hard to get loans because they have no title to leased land. Many more are expected to arrive in Zambia as Mr Mugabe enforces his campaign to seize 95 per cent of all white land, leaving fewer than 100 white farmers out of an original 4,500.