Mugabe's government reclaims 1,449 repossessed former white farms

Feb 4, 2008, 10:49 GMT

Harare - The government of Zimbabwe says it has taken back 1,449 of the farms it seized from their white owners and gave to wealthy black would-be farmers after it discovered the land was either empty or the new occupiers were not doing any farming, according to the state media Monday.

Lands minister Didymus Mutasa was quoted in the state-controlled daily Herald as saying that his ministry was repossessing 'all vacant and underutilized A2 farms (a state scheme meant for settlers with independent finance to carry out commercial farming) and we are not going back on this exercise.' The farms would be given to new, deserving applicants.

In 2000 President Robert Mugabe launched his revolutionary resettlement land programme, in which lawless ruling party militias were used to drive white owners from their land, mostly violently, forcing off nearly all of the community of about 4,000 highly productive white commercial farmers.

About 300 are left, most of them still under constant harassment by ruling party officials. The seizures were followed by a collapse of the agricultural industry, which had earned Zimbabwe the reputation of being Africa's breadbasket, and ricocheted on to the rest of country's agriculturally-based economy, triggering the fastest economic collapse in modern history of any country not at war.

Many of the farms were given to high-ranking ruling party politicians, military and police offices, administrators and judges, while thousands of peasant farmers also initially resettled on land seized from whites were later driven off by members of Mugabe's inner circle, including his relatives.

Studies by auditors say nearly all the seized farms have fallen into ruin, with the homesteads stripped of their roofs and windows, outbuildings and barns crumbling and fields that have reverted to weeds and tall grass.

Mugabe has lamented that the farms are mostly used for weekend braais (barbecues), while the state media has reported that settlers given cheap fuel, seed, fertilizer and implements have sold them on the black market.

Human rights agencies say that the campaign of land seizures, which left 30 farmers and about 100 of their workers dead, was a plan by Mugabe to build up his waning support before an election by giving away land.