Ben Freeth | |
---|---|
Born | |
Occupation(s) | Commercial farmer and Human Rights activist |
Spouse | Laura Campbell |
Children | 3 |
Benjamin Freeth, MBE (born 23 August 1971) is a White Zimbabwean farmer and human rights activist from the district of Chegutu in Mashonaland West Province, Zimbabwe. Together with his father-in-law, Mike Campbell, he rose to international prominence after 2008 for suing the regime of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe for violating the rule of law and human rights in Zimbabwe. Freeth and Campbell's lawsuit against the Mugabe regime—the case of Mike Campbell (Pvt) Ltd and Others v Republic of Zimbabwe —was chronicled in the award-winning 2009 documentary film Mugabe and the White African .
Freeth was born in Sittingbourne, England, United Kingdom, the son of a British military family. After the independence of the Republic of Zimbabwe in 1980, the family relocated to the country where Freeth's father had been hired by the Zimbabwean government to set up a new staff training college for the newly established national army. Freeth attended Aiglon College and went on to study at the Royal Agricultural College in Gloucestershire, England, UK. He then returned to Zimbabwe and married Laura Campbell, the daughter of Rhodesian farmer Mike Campbell and his wife Angela. The Freeths built a house on the Campbells' 30,000 acres (12,000 ha) Mount Carmel estate in Chegutu and Freeth eventually became an official with the Commercial Farmers' Union. The couple have three children. [1] [2]
During the early 1970s, Campbell, a South African Army captain, was involved in the Rhodesian Bush War that pitted Rhodesia's white minority government against Black nationalist guerrillas. He moved to Mount Carmel farm in 1974. He added a neighbouring plot of land in 1980, following Zimbabwean independence. As well as farming, Campbell set up an extensive nature reserve on the property, replete with giraffes, impala and other indigenous animals. He also created the Biri River Safari Lodge, which became a popular tourist attraction. [3]
Campbell purchased Mount Carmel from himself after independence (the full title was vested in 1999 when the Zimbabwean government declared no interest in the land). [4] Together, Freeth and Mike Campbell managed the farm's operations and employed a sizeable number of local farm labourers while Laura oversaw a linen factory on the estate which employed many of the farm workers' wives. [5]
The Mount Carmel estate was described as a model employer. By the late 1990s, it had become the largest mango producer in Zimbabwe. It also produced maize, tobacco and sunflowers and sustained the livelihoods of more than 500 local Zimbabwean people. In 1999, ownership of the farm was transferred to a family company by a "certificate of no interest" from the Mugabe government. Every farm bought after independence in 1980 had to be offered to the government first for possible land redistribution and then deeds were stamped "No Government Interest" if the government did not wish to purchase it. [3]
In 2001, however, the Freeths and Campbells were issued an eviction notice from the Government of Zimbabwe as part of Mugabe's controversial land reform programme. Under this programme, several thousand White-owned farms have been repossessed without compensation by the Zimbabwean government. While the stated intention of the programme is to redistribute land to disadvantaged Zimbabweans, many of the repossessed lands have been given to government officials and others loyal to the Mugabe regime. Subsequently, many of these farms have fallen into disrepair and are no longer active. [6]
Freeth and Campbell chose to dispute the eviction order in court. After having been defeated in the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe, they took their case to the SADC Tribunal, a regional court of the Southern African Development Community. During the case, Freeth, together with Mike and Angela Campbell, was abducted and beaten by Mugabe supporters. [7] The tribunal eventually ruled in Freeth and Campbell's favour, finding that the Zimbabwean government's land repossessions were entirely racially based and, therefore, were in violation of the SADC's principles of human rights. The government of Zimbabwe was ordered to respect Freeth and Campbell's right to own and operate their farm. [3]
The Mugabe government ignored the ruling and later withdrew Zimbabwe from the SADC. In August 2009, the Mount Carmel estate was invaded by Mugabe supporters and Freeth and Campbell's homes were burned down, as were the homes of the farm's workers and their families. The Freeths and Campbells, as well as their workers, were driven from the property. As of 2011, the Mount Carmel estate has become derelict and overgrown. Mike Campbell died in April 2011, though Freeth has stated his intention to continue fighting to take back ownership of the property. [5]
In June 2010, Freeth was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his human rights activism in Zimbabwe. [8]
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Ian Douglas Smith was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 1964 to 1979. He was the country's first leader to be born and raised in Rhodesia, and led the predominantly white government that unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom in November 1965 in opposition to their demands for the implementation of majority rule as a condition for independence. His 15 years in power were defined by the country's international isolation and involvement in the Rhodesian Bush War, which pitted the Rhodesian Security Forces against the Soviet- and Chinese-funded military wings of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU).
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Chegutu, originally known as Hartley, is a town in Mashonaland West Province, Zimbabwe.
White Zimbabweans are a Southern African people of European descent. In linguistic, cultural, and historical terms, these people of European ethnic origin are mostly English-speaking descendants of British settlers. A small minority are either Afrikaans-speaking descendants of Afrikaners from South Africa or those descended from Greek, Portuguese, Italian, and Jewish immigrants.
The following lists events that happened during 2007 in Zimbabwe.
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Robert Gabriel Mugabe was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) from 1975 to 1980 and led its successor political party, the ZANU – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), from 1980 to 2017. Ideologically an African nationalist, during the 1970s and 1980s he identified as a Marxist–Leninist, and as a socialist during the 1990s and the remainder of his career.
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Mike Campbell (Pvt) Ltd et al. v. Republic of Zimbabwe is a case decided by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal. The Tribunal held that the Zimbabwean government violated the organisation's treaty by denying access to the courts and engaging in racial discrimination against white farmers whose lands had been confiscated under the land reform program in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe and the White African is a 2009 documentary film by Lucy Bailey & Andrew Thompson and produced by David Pearson & Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock. It has won many awards including the Grierson 2010 and been BAFTA and Emmy Nominated. The film documents the lives of a white Zimbabwean family who run a farm in Chegutu, as they challenge the Fast Track land redistribution programme that redistributed white-owned estates, a legacy of colonialism and UDI, beginning in 2000. The film follows Mike Campbell, his son-in-law Ben Freeth, and their family as they challenge Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwean government before the Southern African Development Community tribunal for racial discrimination and human rights violations. The film premiered in the UK on 21 October 2009 at the London Film Festival.
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