Zimbabwe to invite white farmers back

AfricanNewsDimension:

In a major policy reversal and the clearest admission yet by the Harare government that its controversial land redistribution programme failed, Mutasa said that the government had asked the white-member Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) to submit names of applicants to receive land repossessed from blacks.

Mutasa, who spoke to ZimOnline earlier this week on Tuesday, said: "We have set up land identification committees countrywide working at a provincial level.

"Figures coming from provinces indicate that there is still a lot of under-utilised land. Some people are not farming at all and we will take away this land. In some provinces, like Manicaland 200 farmers will lose their land to new owners."

Mutasa, a trusted confidante of President Robert Mugabe and who oversees land reform and food aid distribution on top of minding state security, said he and other government ministers had held meetings with the CFU leadership in the past weeks, adding that the white union now appreciated the government's land policy.

He said the government wanted to boost farm production and end hunger in the country but some blacks allocated land had failed the government by failing to produce food. Whites will be brought back to revive food production but more blacks willing to farm would also get land, Mutasa said.

Mutasa said: "We have held fruitful meetings with them (CFU leadership). They now seem to have a clear way forward and understanding on how to work with this government and we are happy with that.

"It was in this vein that we asked them to submit applications for land and these will be treated favourably. They are Zimbabweans like everyone else."

CFU vice-president Trevor Gifford confirmed his organisation had held talks with the government and had submitted names of former white farmers wishing to be allocated land by the government.

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You would think that the farmers would want some assurances and guarantees before investing in a place where the fruits of their labors might be taken on the whim of a despot. Meanwhile the Zimbabwe goverment wants to deal with declining tourism with "better marketing." That may be difficult as the country enters the "Season of Protest" which the goverment threatens to "crush." Here is an idea, get rid of Mugabe, quit crushing the people and taking their land and tearing down their hovels and see if your image does not improve.