“President Robert Mugabe plans to expel all white farmers from farms and seize all the land, according to a document obtained by The Zimbabwe Times.

The document, compiled by ZANU PF, states that no foreigner should be allowed to own rural agricultural land in Zimbabwe.

Mugabe has refused to accept white commercial farmers as Zimbabweans.

The revelation of the planned seizures came as the United Nations warned that Zimbabwe would grow one-quarter of the food it needed to feed its people, with the next maize harvest expected to drop to only 450,000 tonnes or a 70 percent slump.

Zimbabwe needs 1.8 million tonnes to feed its people.”

It was my understanding that the Land Appropriation exercise starts with the Lancaster House Agreement dating back to 1979 - and Mugabe states as often as he can, the Britain did not stand up to their side of the deal… the compensation to be paid to farmers.

But let it be said that Mugabe didn’t stand up to his side of the deal either, choosing to forcibly seize the land instead of taking it on the agreed “willing buyer - willing seller” basis.

Be that as it may, the land grab continues today and was begun in early 2000 when, in a fit of rage after having lost the referendum on a new constitution, Mugabe set his war veterans to work.

Beatings, abductions, theft, arson and murder ensued - not that anyone has ever been prosecuted for these crimes - although Mugabe will have farmers prosecuted for remaining on their land - some of which were purchased after independence, so Mugabe’s government has been paid for the land, and is now intent on taking it back without recompense of any sort.

For these purchases to have taken place, the Mugabe government would have had to declare “no interest” in the land. Why then, are they intent on removing the land legitimately purchased - with no compensation?

“Land acquisition and redistribution is an ongoing process which should continue given the incremental demand for land,” says the document.

Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) president Deon Theron said: “In short the content of the document does everything needed to confirm the unjust, corrupt and unsustainable position in which the commercial agricultural sub-sector now finds itself as a result of the lack of transparency associated with the land reform programme.”

The fact that the agricultural sector has all but collapsed should be sending out major warning signals to the Mugabe camp, but he has realised that the seizure of farms cannot stop as it keeps a portion of the population in check, employs another portion of the population (even though he will not consider farmers Zimbabwean), and he can continue to sell the lie to the whole population and those that might be interested in the free world.

Zimbabwe was once a farmers’ paradise and provided for the people easily and the country made money by exporting the surplus.

Mugabe is singularly responsible for the decimation of agriculture and horticulture in Zimbabwe - but no one in the free world seems to care.

How sad that one man can pull the wool over so many eyes at once.

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man