The smell of burning still lingers. Looking through the front door of what was a grand property, all that is left of it are cinders.

Gone forever are memories collected over three decades.

“My parents have lived in that house for 35 years,” laments Laura Freeth, the daughter of elderly farmer Mike Campbell.

Broken pieces of expensive-looking crockery visible among the ashes on the floor tell a tale of resilience. Like the owners of Mount Carmel, the crockery refuses to vanish.

Everything else that meant anything has been reduced to ashes. There are no wall ornaments, family pictures or any other items of value left.

All that is left of the double storey house is its ruined walls. A small cottage next to the house and other buildings have miraculously survived the inferno.

An election poster of President Robert Mugabe waving his fist has been affixed to the gate .

Campbell, 76, was one of only 400 white farmers remaining in Zimbabwe. Before Mugabe’s land reforms there were about 4500 commercial white farmers.

Campbell has put up a brave fight to hold onto his property. Resilient and determined, he initiated the legal challenge between a group of 78 white farmers and President Robert Mugabe’s regime at the SADC tribunal after Zimbabwean courts failed to rule in their favour. Last year in November, the tribunal ruled in their favour. They could remain on their farms and “the respondent [the Zimbabwe government] is directed to take all necessary measures, through its agents, to protect the possession, occupation and ownership of the lands of the applicants”. SADC found that the farmers had been discriminated against on the ground of race.

But since the ruling, the harassment has continued and Campbell has been beaten and hounded by war veterans. Until April he refused to budge but after he was assaulted once again by people who wanted to take over his farm, Campbell left for Harare.

Then, last Wednesday, his house caught fire and burned to the ground. The fire came just three days after his son-in- law’s nearby house burned down. Arson is suspected.

As a result of the ongoing tug of war for Mount Carmel the once-thriving citrus farm has ground to a halt.

Mount Carmel used to supply mangos to the world-famous Marks & Spencer in the UK — now the neglected mango trees are unlikely to bear any fruit.

Until last Sunday, Laura Freeth and her husband, Ben, lived a kilometre from her parents’ home on Mount Carmel Farm. While they were in church their house inexplicably caught fire. By the time they arrived there was nothing to salvage.

“We have nothing … we no longer have a home … no furniture,” said Laura.

Yesterday she was a little upbeat — her brother Bruce Campbell had married his sweetheart Grace Valentine the day before. “It was good,” said Laura of the wedding.

Unlike his father and sister Laura , Bruce was spared — his house remains intact.

Mavies Chipala, a domestic worker at Bruce’s house, exclaimed: “We were lucky our house was not burned.”

Chipala said she could not understand why any one would attack the Campbells.

“Bruce is a good man. He buys us groceries and helps us with medication for the children,” she said.

The man suspected of being behind a long-running campaign to have Mount Carmel removed from Campbell is a former Cabinet minister and member of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF politburo, one Nathan Shamuyarira.

Shamuyarira, 81, has been trying to take over Mount Carmel farm for several years.

Farmers in the area have alleged that Shamuyarira has tried everything to force the Campbells out, including violence. He is alleged to have sent people masquerading as war veterans to try to run the Campbells out.

Now, people apparently linked to Shamuyarira have forcibly moved onto the farm and have taken over some of the operations.

“These thugs stole the whole crop,” says Freeth, adding that her parents and brother were unable to make any money this year because of the actions of these land invaders.

Freeth is also concerned that the livelihoods of hundreds of people who worked on the farm have been ruined by the violent takeover.

“My linen factory on the farm, which employed 50 people, was burned to the ground. All my equipment is gone.”

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean government, stung by the SADC Tribunal ruling and fearing further criticism from the regional bloc, announced it was pulling out of the SADC tribunal — in its opinion this nullifies the tribunal’s November ruling in favour of the farmers.

However, legal opinion sought by The Times indicates that Zimbabwe’s government has got it wrong. The beleaguered country cannot avoid its liabilities by simply quitting the legal process.

Unfazed by SADC and its tribunal, by the plight of the white farmers and the Mount Carmel workers, Simbarashe “Cremora” Mutswapo, a 42-year-old man who claims to be the new owner, complained that Campbell’s workers were lazy.

Mutswapo said: “They are refusing to work for us because Campbell is paying them for doing nothing. They will not vacate the house so that our workers can move in.”

Flanked by four “bodyguards”, Mutswapo said (Mike) Campbell had been ready to leave but that his son-in-law, Freeth, was being stubborn.

“The farm had been taken over by Mudara [old man] Shamuyarira and they must accept that,” said Mutswapo. He said Shamuyarira was a good man who had even offered to share the farm with Campbell.

“Campbell refused. He said he cannot share with blacks.”

Mutswapo said the accusations that they had set the house on fire were untrue. “How can I burn my own house?”

He said as “new owners” they were “reasonable” and kind towards the “previous” owners.

“We even allowed them [the Campbells] to keep their cows on our farm.”

Asked about the multiple fires on the farm, Mutswapo claimed the Campbells had kept “dangerous weapons of war” in their house, which could have ignited and caused the inferno.

“When we were helping them to remove some of the things from the burning house, a bomb went off,” Mutswapo claimed.

To back his allegation, Mustwapo displayed shells recovered from the house after the fire. He said the police were investigating the presence of dangerous weapons on the property.

However, Freeth dismissed the concerns as unwarranted saying her parents, like most farmers, had legally owned weapons on their properties.

The police in the nearby town of Chegutu were not willing to comment on the matter. It remained unclear whether any investigations of arson were taking place.

For now, Freeth and her husband are living on charity.

“The community have rented a house for us in Chegutu.”

As to the future, it remains anyone’s guess, and the outcome of SADC’s meeting this week, where Zimbabwe’s land problems are expected to come under discussion, will be much anticipated by many.