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Mugabe Legacy: White Farmer Whose Tobacco Plantation Was Seized by Standing5(m): 12:57am On Nov 25, 2017
EXCLUSIVE: 'Mugabe's gone, what a pleasure': White farmer whose tobacco plantation was seized by tyrant's thugs in Zimbabwe and given to a British GP friend of the despot says: 'Justice WILL be done...'

-Phillip and Anita Rankin were turfed off their Zimbabwe farm by thugs working for Mugabe in February 2016 The family's treasured belongings were dumped into the back of lorry and driven away by bailiffs with AK47s
-Rankins had called Kingston Farm tobacco plantation in Centenary 123km north of Harare home for 35 years
-Their farm was seized and given to British doctor Sylvester Nyatsuro and wife Veronica, friends of Mugabe
-Couple say now Mugabe is gone they hope that justice is done and that they will finally get their home back




A white Zimbabwean couple whose £800,000 tobacco farm was seized by Robert Mugabe's thugs and given to a black British doctor are 'excited and hopeful' they will get it back now that the hated dictator has stepped down.

Philip Rankin, 59, and his wife, Anita, 58, were handcuffed and thrown out of the farm they had lovingly tended for 33 years by armed police in January 2016, after being 'under siege' there for 110 days.

The 2,000 acre farm was given to the wealthy GP Sylvester Nyatsuro, 47. Believed to be the Mugabes' former family doctor, he is of Zimbabwean descent but has lived in Nottingham for more than 15 years and sends his three children to private school.

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline at a relative's house in northeastern Zimbabwe, father-of-three Mr Rankin said: 'Mugabe is gone, what a pleasure. It's a breath of fresh air. It raises hopes for us. I'm hopeful that justice will be done and people will be held accountable. I'm upbeat, positive and excited. It's long overdue.'


A tobacco farm in Zimbabwe belonging to Philip Rankin, 59, and his wife, Anita, 58, (pictured) was seized by Robert Mugabe's thugs in February last year and given to a black British doctor who was friends with the despot


Guarded: Gun-toting thugs guarded the 2,000 acre farm after the Rankins were turfed off the property that they called home for 33 years on the orders of Mugabe


Rack and ruin: When MailOnline visited the farm this week (pictured), a dam built by the Rankins had burst, meaning that the irrigation had dried up and tobacco could no longer be grown. The few remaining farmhands were trying to grow maize, but they were struggling without the Rankins' expertise

Mrs Rankin added: 'We have been left with nothing. I don't care what the farm looks like now, I'm prepared to go back and spend years building it up again. I'd just love to go back to my home.'

Mrs Rankin's family have lived in Zimbabwe for five generations after her ancestors settled there in the 1890s. Mr Rankin is a second-generation Zimbabwean. Both speak the local language, Shona, fluently.

'Just because you're black doesn't mean you're more Zimbabwean than me,' Mr Rankin said. 'It's sickening the racism that Mugabe instilled.'

Last February, the High Court ruled that the farm must be restored to the Rankins. This, however, was ignored by police who were acting on the orders of Grace Mugabe.

This week, however, soldiers reportedly chased the thugs off the property, marking the first step on the road to returning it to its rightful owners.

'If we get it back, it will be a new beginning for us,' Mrs Rankin said. 'I don't care if we are left with a denuded place. I just want it to be mine. I want to plant and grow produce that I can give to whoever I want. We are people of the soil. It's in our genes.'

MailOnline visited the Rankins' farm, 125miles northeast of Harare, to find it padlocked and in a state of disrepair. The farmhouse was deserted and the tobacco processing plant was locked and surrounded by rubbish.

A dam built by the Rankins had burst, meaning that the irrigation had dried up and tobacco could no longer be grown. The few remaining farmhands were trying to grow maize, but they were struggling without the Rankins' expertise.

'There was a good, white farmer here called Rankin,' one of the labourers told MailOnline. 'People are crying that he is not here any more. We aren't making any money.'

The British doctor had not visited the property in more than a year, he added, and 'did not seem to care about the place'.

The Rankins, who have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds and are now in heavy debt, are doing their best to rebuild their lives as they continue to stay with family about 50miles from their old home.

Mrs Rankin has been growing raspberries using cuttings that their gardener managed to salvage from the farm and has just sold the first batch.

'I'm kind of OK. We have to be OK, but the wheels fall off every now and again,' she told MailOnline. 'We've been in our own place for all of our married life and now we have no home.'
Re: Mugabe Legacy: White Farmer Whose Tobacco Plantation Was Seized by Standing5(m): 1:02am On Nov 25, 2017

Dr Nyatsuro (pictured), who is occupying the farm, was disgraced last year when his clinic, the Willows Medical Centre, was shut down by the Care Quality Commission


As they were: Before they were booted off their land, the Rankins' oversaw a thriving tobacco plantation (pictured) 125miles northeast of Harare that had a flourishing crop. The couple, who are staying with a relative, are hopeful of getting it back.


Her husband said: 'My wife doesn't know what it is to move. One school, one husband, one home. It's a big thing for her not to have a home, but she's a strong person.'

He added: 'Of the two of us, I'm the baby. I'm the one who cries in my pillow at night.'

After being unemployed for a year, Mr Rankin has just completed his first day of work as a freelance farming consultant. But he still feels disorientated.

'How am I supposed to look for a job?' he said. 'I'm 59 years old and I've never had to do that in my life.'

This was the third time that Mr Rankin had been expelled from a white-owned farm that was given to blacks.

After studying to be a tobacco farmer, he worked on his father's farm until it was seized in 1982. He then found work on another farm, and that was stolen a year later and given to black farmers.

Finally, he founded a farm of his own, which was taken from him last year. About 4,000 white farmers are thought to have been expelled from their properties by the Mugabe regime.

'What they tried to do to me the night they stole my farm you don't want to know,' he told MailOnline.

'They told me, we have contacts with the First Lady, you are going to leave with just the shirt on your back. I fought off four guys before they handcuffed me and dragged us out barefoot.

'They drove me away and were going to do me in, but they couldn't because my friends were following their vehicle.

'I didn't pack one item. All my property they stole. I am a loyal, non-political Zimbabwean farmer. That's what hurt me. I was so disappointed in people.'

Armed police later packed some of the Rankins' property into a truck, drove it to where they were staying and dumped it on the grass in the rain.

The Rankins, who are devout Christians, said they would forgive the Mugabes and Dr Nyatsuro – but only if they were held accountable.

'Our time will come,' Mr Rankin said. 'Now Mugabe is gone. One day, they're going to see my Land Rover roll into their yard. I'll pitch up and say, do you know who I am? Do you remember this guy? Two wrongs don't make a right, but there must be accountability.'

He added: 'Everybody talks about forgiveness but forgiveness only comes with repentance. I believe that Dr Nyatsuro must be held accountable. He is living the life of Riley and we're struggling. And he's not even using the farm at all. It's all wrong. He must pay for the two years taken from my life.'

Dr Nyatsuro, who is married to wife Veronica, was disgraced last year when his Nottingham clinic, the Willows Medical Centre, was shut down by the Care Quality Commission after a healthcare assistant was found carrying out internal examinations of patients while posing as a doctor.

Dr Nyatsuro has always denied knowledge of any violence used to take control of his claim to the Rankins' farm, and said that he was allocated the property by the state in accordance with normal legal procedure. He added that no political influence was brought to bear on the decision.

Meanwhile, the Rankins said they have even been harassed by Mugabe's thugs while staying with family members nowhere near their farm.

'Four henchmen were sent to me here, telling me I've got to get out of the country,' Mr Rankin said. 'I said, why must I go when Grace is from South Africa and Dr Nyatsuro is British? My kids were educated here. Theirs were not. Why must I go? They should go.'

Now that the Mugabes have been removed from power, however, the Rankins' future looks like it's about to change for the better.

'I'm hopeful that when the time comes, we'll get our property back, but only if they give us a guarantee that it won't happen again,' Mr Rankin said.

'I believe that it's positive for us. Dr Nyatsuro will be a very worried little man at the moment. I reckon he's shivering in his boots right now.'

Source
Re: Mugabe Legacy: White Farmer Whose Tobacco Plantation Was Seized by Macgreat(m): 1:13am On Nov 25, 2017
This article is long Ooo.


I need just 1 billion to install wallpapers in federal state house
Re: Mugabe Legacy: White Farmer Whose Tobacco Plantation Was Seized by ayokellany: 1:45am On Nov 25, 2017
That is what I always say, black man with black brain. It's funny some Nigerians were advising South Africa to seize white businesses n companies after apartheid forgetting how that ruined Zimbabwe till date. The same thing Nigeria did with nationalisation of foreign business and within a twinkle of eye Nigeria became the shiit of Africa from giant of Africa.

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Re: Mugabe Legacy: White Farmer Whose Tobacco Plantation Was Seized by MayorofLagos(m): 1:59am On Nov 25, 2017
ayokellany:
That is what I always say, black man with black brain. It's funny some Nigerians were advising South Africa to seize white businesses n companies after apartheid forgetting how that ruined Zimbabwe till date. The same thing Nigeria did with nationalisation of foreign business and within a twinkle of eye Nigeria became the shiit of Africa from giant of Africa.

Along the length and breadth of Africa, we had rather have a shitty country ruled by one of us than have a fckng white racist controlling and enslaving us on our soil.

They jailed Ibori, they are harassing Diezani for owning a small part of London and living large amongst their elite....but they want o have plantation in Africa and be left alone to control the life of the continent.

Dr Nyatsuru should continue his ownership of that farmland. Thats his eligibility as a son of the soil.

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Re: Mugabe Legacy: White Farmer Whose Tobacco Plantation Was Seized by ayokellany: 2:22am On Nov 25, 2017
MayorofLagos:


Along the length and breadth of Africa, we had rather have a shitty country ruled by one of us than have a fckng white racist controlling and enslaving us on our soil.

They jailed Ibori, they are harassing Diezani for owning a small part of London and living large amongst their elite....but they want o have plantation in Africa and be left alone to control the life of the continent.

Dr Nyatsuru should continue his ownership of that farmland. Thats his eligibility as a son of the soil.

There wouldn't have been any problem with the doc owning the property, the problem is that he is not able to maintain the property talkless of turning it into a productive or profitable enterprise like the white guy. If you consider the job n revenue lost to the state you'd understand why the land should never have been taken away from the white guy in the first place.

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Re: Mugabe Legacy: White Farmer Whose Tobacco Plantation Was Seized by MayorofLagos(m): 2:29am On Nov 25, 2017
ayokellany:


There wouldn't have been any problem with the doc owning the property, the problem is that he is not able to maintain the property talkless of turning it into a productive or profitable enterprise like the white guy. If you consider the job n revenue lost to the state you'd understand why the land should never have been taken away from the white guy in the first place.

There are useless white farmers in Europe sitting on hectares of land and not productive. They government does not disposess them of their property. Why should we disposess blackman of his farmland and give to white?

The whte took the land from its original black owner. The white couple have owned it for 35yrs. The country and its land had been in existence longer than that.

They told us how painful it was to be chased off but never shared with us how they got it in first place.

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Re: Mugabe Legacy: White Farmer Whose Tobacco Plantation Was Seized by Standing5(m): 2:48am On Nov 25, 2017
ayokellany:


There wouldn't have been any problem with the doc owning the property, the problem is that he is not able to maintain the property talkless of turning it into a productive or profitable enterprise like the white guy. If you consider the job n revenue lost to the state you'd understand why the land should never have been taken away from the white guy in the first place.
God bless you. The jobs and revenue lost alone is enough to leave the real owner alone.
The heart of man is desperately evil indeed.
Re: Mugabe Legacy: White Farmer Whose Tobacco Plantation Was Seized by MayorofLagos(m): 2:52am On Nov 25, 2017
Standing5:
God bless you. The jobs and revenue lost alone is enough to leave the real owner alone.
The heart of man is desperately evil indeed.

Here we go...white man preaching about evil, trying to use fear to bamboozle the black.

Who is more evil than the whiteman?

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Re: Mugabe Legacy: White Farmer Whose Tobacco Plantation Was Seized by Standing5(m): 2:53am On Nov 25, 2017
MayorofLagos:


There are useless white farmers in Europe sitting on hectares of land and not productive. They government does not disposess them of their property. Why should we disposess blackman of his farmland and give to white?

The whte took the land from its original black owner. The white couple have owned it for 35yrs. The country and its land had been in existence longer than that.

They told us how painful it was to be chased off but never shared with us how they got it in first place.
Was any black man forcefully displaced from the land when the white settlers acquired them? I doubt it. The whites have been there since early 1900s and this is their fourth generation.
Re: Mugabe Legacy: White Farmer Whose Tobacco Plantation Was Seized by MayorofLagos(m): 3:08am On Nov 25, 2017
Standing5:
Was any black man forcefully displaced from the land when the white settlers acquired them? I doubt it. The whites have been there since early 1900s and this is their fourth generation.

Four generations only! Thats all??

The land and the people have been there longer than that.

Yes they were forcefully displaced. Since white man got in that countey and for over 100yrs after any blackman found living on a primeland or in posession of a prime real estate had to vacate for a whteman or be killed.

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Re: Mugabe Legacy: White Farmer Whose Tobacco Plantation Was Seized by juman(m): 3:09am On Nov 25, 2017
Hope the old man new president would not be mugabe part two. He was part and parcel of mugabe government for decades.

Its only mugable that left the government, while many others still remain,

Hope they do things differently.

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Re: Mugabe Legacy: White Farmer Whose Tobacco Plantation Was Seized by MayorofLagos(m): 3:13am On Nov 25, 2017

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Re: Mugabe Legacy: White Farmer Whose Tobacco Plantation Was Seized by Standing5(m): 1:59pm On Jun 30, 2018
MayorofLagos:


Along the length and breadth of Africa, we had rather have a shitty country ruled by one of us than have a fckng white racist controlling and enslaving us on our soil.

They jailed Ibori, they are harassing Diezani for owning a small part of London and living large amongst their elite....but they want o have plantation in Africa and be left alone to control the life of the continent.

Dr Nyatsuru should continue his ownership of that farmland. Thats his eligibility as a son of the soil.
The white man isn't as bad as his white counterpart.

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