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
The farm (pictured) was handed over to wealthy British GP Sylvester Nyatsuro, who is believed to be close to the Mugabes – but the Rankins are battling through the courts in Zimbabwe to their what they see as their rightful land back
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
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
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.’
Since the ‘bloodless coup’ and exchange of power by the military took place this week, soldiers reportedly chased the thugs off the property, marking the first step on the road to returning it to its rightful owners
The Rankins, who are eking out a living selling raspberries, hope and pray that the changing political landscape in Zimbabwe where Mugabe’s 37-year rule dramatically ended this week is the first sign that they will get their beloved farm (pictured) back
The Rankins’ neglected tobacco curing plant (pictured) that has been left deserted and surrounded by rubbish while cattle are left to graze in the overgrown yard
The tobacco crop on the site is poor as the current occupant is a relative of the British doctor who was given the land and is reportedly struggling without the Rankins’ agricultural expertise
In February, the High Court ruled the farm should be returned to the Rankins – but was ignored by police acting on the orders of Grace Mugabe
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.
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
Philip Rankin shows off his dried tobacco plant from when he used to farm the land. He and his wife Anita were kicked off the land in February last year and had to throw their worldly possessions into the back of a truck overseen by gun toting thugs
Seized: The Rankins were forced off the farm by armed thugs who padlocked the gates behind them. Mr Rankin told MailOnline: ‘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’
The 2,000 acre farm is 125m north east of Harare. The Rankins are staying with relatives as they fight to get their home back
‘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.’
Land-grab: Wealthy doctor Sylvester Nyatsuro, 47, moved to the UK in 2001 with his wife Veronica (pictured), 47, ran a weight-loss clinic in Nottingham
The wealthy couple enjoy a privileged lifestyle as they live in an £800,000 home in Nottingham (pictured) and their three children have gone to private school
Powerful friends: The Nyatsuros are pictured here at a nursery school with Grace Mugabe. Sylvester is believed to have been the Mugabes family doctor before he left Zimbabwe for the UK 15 years ago
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.’