CNN News: White Farmers in Zimbabwe Ousted From Their Land

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Here's an article on the situation in Zimbabwe from the Irish Times:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0922/1224254988267.html

A SECRET document presented to Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabes cabinet last month by the Zanu-PF-held land ministry recommends the government should take control of all the remaining white-owned farms in the country.

The document, which has been seen by The Irish Times, was presented to cabinet on August 27th for approval and has coincided with a surge in land invasions against many of the countrys remaining 400 or so white farmers.

Reports have been surfacing daily that many of the 78 farmers afforded the protection of the Southern African Development Community by the bodys tribunal late last year have been harassed, assaulted and subjected to arson attacks over the past few weeks by thugs loyal to Mr Mugabes allies.

Hundreds of other white farmers are being dragged before the courts so the authorities can forcibly remove them from their land legally.

The powersharing deal between Mr Mugabes Zanu-PF and the former Movement for Democratic Change opposition parties signed last February has the stated aims of stabilising Zimbabwes crippled economy and ensuring security of tenure for all landholders . . . irrespective of race.

However, the document signed by minister of lands and rural settlements Herbert Murerwa appears to contradict the agreed terms that led to the formation of the transitional government.

As well as stating the government should continue to acquire white-owned farms, the document recommends that no foreigner should be allowed to own rural agricultural land in Zimbabwe and that farm land should be excluded from future interstate investment protection agreements.

It also advises that the prosecution of farmers resisting to move off the acquired land should be expedited, and that deserving Zimbabweans should continue to be offered confiscated land by government through the issue of offer letters.

Zimbabwes Commercial Farmers Union president, Deon Theron, said the union was concerned about the implications of the document as it believed that, aside from dispossessing its members, it was likely to destabilise the government. Its absolutely ludicrous that the document recommends no foreigner should be allowed to own rural land in Zimbabwe, said Mr Theron. We believe that recommendations are now being implemented, as there has been a huge escalation of violence against our members.

Last Saturday in the Herald [state-controlled newspaper], Mr Mugabe urged the youth to take the land. Its not for the youth to do that. It seems that we were mistaken to think the unity government would protect us, Mr Theron said, adding that he had just left court with his 79-year-old mother whose farm is in the process of being expropriated.

In his speech to Zanu-PF youth, Mr Mugabe reportedly urged farmers to embrace land reform, and went on to state: Once people have offer letters and they are valid, thats it. The farm is not yours any more.

Please dont resist. I am saying please, please, but that will stop. If we hear about any resistance, we will stop pleading. I will just send the police to drive them away.

Also included in the document was a breakdown of the foreigners affected by Mr Mugabes land reform programme since it began taking white-owned farms in 2000.

According to their statistics, citizens from 14 countries have had their farms taken.

The dispossessed include 19 farms owned by South Africans, 61 owned by Mauritians, 43 by Germans, 41 by Dutch nationals, 28 by Swiss citizens, 26 by Italians, and five by Americans.

The statistics also confirm that 6,214 farms, totalling 10.8 million hectares, have been seized by the state over the past nine years 70 per cent of the countrys rural farmland with most going to Mr Mugabes cronies.

Category:

News & Politics

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• zimbabwe
• white farmers
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• breaking news
• inside africa

[tigerone1970]

@redhotpepper37

President Mugabe: " If rigging elections means winning the elections through majority voting, well, then let it be. We will be winning, we will win all the time. "

Source: Robert Mugabe speaks to Al Jazeera - 25 Mar 08

watch?v=yLldzFA9H-E

I hope you can see how what you said President Mugabe said is misquoting and misrepresenting what he said.

[tigerone1970]

@redhotpepper37

First of all, that's a (deliberate) misquote, I suggest that you seek out the original Al-Jazeera footage for the correct one.

Second, Africa is already under white rule. Who do you think owns the diamond, gold, and other mining industry? Who do you think owns the banking industry.

Remember that under Belgian rule, 50% of the population of the Congo was annihilated, 80% in Namibia. No African rulers have managed to rival that, to say the least.

[redhotpepper37]

@tigerone1970 Comparing him to a white supremacist is laughable the man is more concerned with wearing jumpers & working land than anything else.

I watched the documentary too, ""If rigging the elections means winning the elections through majority voting, then uh, let it be. And that's precisely, that we will be win, we will winning all the time." Africa would be a lot better off under whites - at least whites can come into the 21st century and know that democracy actually matters.

[redhotpepper37]

@Jordonx Not to mention the lack of access to capital - no bank wants to lend money to people they know do not legally own the land.

[ttagit]

As soon as the whites are all booted out the arabs will move in and colonize them anyways.

[Jordonx]

The White Zimbabweans know the business of Farming, they made money, people had jobs, and their workers had schools and medical facilities for their themselves and their children, once they were removed, the Zimbabwean black farmers, plundered the land and crops, and didnt replant crops, hence the food shortages, and the people wouldnt work for them because lack of wages, the medical and school facilities were also gone.......

[tigerone1970]

@BlackholeInfinite

There is an excellent blog that has a lot of details and sources on this issue:

maravi blogspot com

[tigerone1970]

@BlackholeInfinite

" and the collapse of Zimbabwe's commercial farming sector. "

Cotton exports did not 'collapse' until 2002, when the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 came into force on Jan. 1st 2002. This put a credit freeze on the Zimbabwean government, and as you may know, international trade occurs on credit. That is why agriculture and the currency collapsed, in the year 2002, not in 2000 when the 'farm invasions' began.

[tigerone1970]

@BlackholeInfinite

" caused rampant human rights violations (death and torture) "

Source? There were 4,500 white farmers. Six were killed during the decade of land reform. So where is this evidence of massive use of violence?

There are a lot of accounts in prof. Ian Scoones book on landreform in Zimbabwe, is that a lot of the damage to white farms was done by the departing white farmers themselves, to sabotage the new farmers and their ability to take over the estates.

[BlackholeInfinite]

@tigerone1970 what do the beliefs of 2 ignorant racists have to do with the fact that Mugabe's Fast Track Land Reform Act caused rampant human rights violations (death and torture) and the collapse of Zimbabwe's commercial farming sector.