Cathy Buckle: 'Go back to where you came from' Zim settlers are being told

Key topics:Zimbabwe’s winter wildlife and Msasa trees in vivid seasonal colourMaize harvest memories, livestock feeding, and rural farm nostalgiaLand evictions and contested farms amid food aid and maize imports.By Cathy Buckle.It’s that gorgeous time of year when the colours of winter are stunning in Zimbabwe. Bright orange flowers on creepers and aloes attracting sunbirds with emerald green, crimson, blue and bright yellow plumage. Under the deep blue sky sunbirds are feasting on nectar, sipping and flicking from one long thin flower to another, hanging upside down with wings that apparently beat 50 or more times a second. The Msasa trees are covered in pods this year, more than we’ve had for a few years, the pods thick and leathery, olive green and light brown, waiting to shed their bounty at the end of winter while termites climb high up into the trees, leaving their red soil pathways all the way up. .Read more:.Cathy Buckle: Shelling maize and dodging roadblocks – A winter journey through Zimbabwe’s tough realities.This early winter in Zimbabwe it’s gone quiet in residential neighbourhoods. Up until a couple of weeks ago people were bent over and chattering, busy harvesting their maize on self- apportioned roadside plots, snapping cobs off brown stalks and throwing them into piles, later filling bags and carrying their precious food home. Where yesterday the maize plants were tall and golden, now the remnants lie in heaps waiting to be burnt before the next planting season comes. Wasted food, I think, as I remember what a vital resource maize residue, called mashanga, was when I was farming.Memories come flooding back of reaping the maize and carrying it back to dry on the racks on the farm. We never burnt the crop residue, always collecting and storing it to feed to sheep and cattle through winter and the dry season, a precious resource until the green grass came back. There was always lots left on the fields though and there was nothing nicer than watching the cattle crowding at the gate in the mornings after harvesting, shoving and pushing, wanting to be first in the field. Their breath would rise in a white mist above them as they crowded at the gate, mooing and bellowing, drooling and dribbling. When the big gate swung open on those cold winter mornings you had to get out the way of the big push and after the stampede the only view was of heads down everywhere, munching, crunching, satisfied. These memories were particularly poignant this week when I heard that local authorities have now started selling the land on my farm to individuals and are evicting the people who were resettled there by the government after they evicted me. “Go back where you came from,” the settlers are being told.Selling contested land, telling people who they resettled there that they must go, it’s all just unthinkable, unbelievable. Hurt after hurt after hurt, worthless contracts, documents and Deeds, empty promises and repeated cycles of evictions.While this is going on the World Food Programme said it urgently requires US$36,5 million to sustain food assistance programmes in Zimbabwe over the next six months. The WFP said they assisted 161,000 people in April, distributing 2,890 tonnes of food and providing US$67,400 in cash transfers to vulnerable households. Meanwhile the South African press said Zimbabwe was the major buyer of South African maize during the 2025/26 season, purchasing 780,770 tonnes. But we are confused because Zimbabwe boasted about a bumper harvest in the 2025/26 season and now we just try and make sense of it all: the World Food Programme feeding Zimbabweans, a bumper harvest, authorities selling contested land, evicting resettled farmers. This is the face of farming in Zimbabwe in 2026.Meeting a friend this week we talked about what’s happening on farms and then reminisced about those winter mornings when we had stood at the farm gate together watching the cows when they had just been let out into a newly harvested field. Guinea fowl and francolins running in the stubble finding dropped maize pips, cows lifting their heads with their mouths full of brown maize leaves, saliva hanging from their lips, bellies fat and round, coats shiny and glistening. “There will never be farming there again now,” my friend said and I had to turn my head away..There is no charge for this Letter From Zimbabwe but if you would like to support my writing and donate please visit my website.Until next time, thanks for reading this Letter From Zimbabwe now in its 26th year, and my books about life in Zimbabwe, a country in waiting.Ndini shamwari yenyu (I am your friend)Love Cathy 30th May 2026. Copyright © Cathy Buckle https://cathybuckle.co.zw/ Please visit my website to see all my Books, Photobooks and Calendars https://cathybuckle.co.zw/ .Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox every morning on weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here.

Cathy Buckle: 'Go back to where you came from' Zim settlers are being told

Related Stories

Miningweb: Australia’s mining sector faces a backlash over indigenous rights claims

Cathy Buckle: 409 farmers in Zimbabwe; it's all as clear as mud

Resilient communities across the world are forging alternative economies amid rising living costs

Waterfall city: The Gauteng smart hub where you lease, not own