About one-quarter of Zimbabwe's remaining white commercial farmers are being prevented from farming their land in an apparent new wave of farm seizures, further compromising the country's food security, Polity has been told.

Deon Theron, vice-chairperson of the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), who is in Johannesburg on a private visit, said on Tuesday that about 100 of the union's 350 to 400 members had had their "activities disrupted by people pitching at the gate and claiming that they are the new farm owners".

"They cannot plant maize and this is of great concern to us, given the food shortage the country is facing."

Donor agencies estimate that about five-million Zimbabweans - or one-half of the country's population - require emergency food aid.

The affected farmers include some who, in November, secured a Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal ruling preventing President Robert Mugabe's government from evicting them from their land. The Windhoek-based tribunal branded the land redistribution programme racist and illegal under the SADC Treaty.

The Harare administration has, since 2000, seized white-owned farmland, ostensibly for redistribution to blacks, but critics say that the major beneficiaries have been Mugabe's cronies.

Consequently, the CFU's membership has plummeted from 4 500 in 1998 to about 400 at present.

The programme has had major implications for the production capacity of the agricultural sector, with Theron pointing out that the production of maize - the country's staple food - has declined from 1,4-million tons in 1998 to 400 000 tons last year.

White farmers currently account for 120 000 t - or about 20% - of current maize production, down from 521 000 t (35%) before the launch of the land redistribution programme.

Although the number of white commercial farmers has shrunk to about one-tenth of the 1998 level, these farmers are still a force to be reckoned with, producing 90% of Zimbabwe's tobacco, a major foreign currency earner. They also account for 86% of the country's soya bean crop.

Theron said that he was concerned because the people now laying claim to the CFU members' land were "part-time farmers", who were unlikely to maintain, let alone boost, agricultural production.

It has been widely reported that politicians, senior army officers, judges and others with ties to government have been among the major beneficiaries of the farmland redistribution programme.

"We have never opposed land reform, but what is happening is utter lawlessness," said Theron, adding that the union had advised its members facing the latest wave of evictions to "follow the legal route in protecting their rights".

In fact, media reports this week indicated that 77 white farmers are seeking to have the SADC tribunal ruling registered with the Harare High Court, which would make it difficult for the authorities to continue ignoring it.

Meanwhile, Theron lambasted the Mugabe government for lack of transparency with respect to the R300-million donated by South Africa for the purchase of agricultural inputs for the current planting season.

The Grain Marketing Board has been tasked with distributing the inputs, but Theron said that there had been rumours of abuse.

"I am not saying the funds have been abused, but we are concerned that there is no transparency at all," he said, adding that the CFU hoped that the South African donation would go a long way to improving Zimbabwe's food security.

Meanwhile, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change meets on Friday to decide whether it will join Mugabe's Zanu-PF in a government of national unity, in line with the resolution of a SADC summit held in Pretoria on Monday.

Observers believe a government of national unity is Zimbabwe's only hope of getting out of its political and economic quagmire.