Posted on 07/24/2002 7:29:49 PM PDT by Clive
NEARLY 650 white farmers have already been evicted from their farms by new settlers, some of whom are senior government officials, ahead of the August 10 deadline set by the government for them to quit their properties or face prosecution, Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) president Collin Cloete said yesterday.
Most of the evictions have taken place in farms around the three Mashonaland provinces, he told the Financial Gazette.
"About 650 farmers have been pushed off their land by government officials and potential A2 settlers," Cloete said.
Under the government's controversial land reforms, A2 model farmers refers to the new black landowners with farming skills and financial resources who are taking over commercial agriculture from the white farmers.
But many of those who have benefited under the A2 scheme are close associates of President Robert Mugabe and supporters of his ruling ZANU PF party.
Calling the future of largely white-led commercial agriculture in Zimbabwe bleak, Cloete said the government's land reform drive now looked more like it was intended to purge the white farmer.
"The future of farming is bleak. It looks like the intention is to get all the land and get rid of white farmers," the CFU chief said.
He said about 70 percent of the estimated 4 500 white commercial farmers had been issued with government orders to stop farming by August 10, while the government had been issuing Section 8 orders to the remaining farmers.
The latter order bars farmers from carrying out any farming for 45 days after which they must leave their properties.
The often violent and chaotic land reforms are largely blamed for disrupting farming last season and causing a 60 percent plunge in food production, triggering the current food crisis which threatens half of Zimbabwe's population or six million people.
The United States, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand and Switzerland have imposed sanctions on Mugabe and 52 of his top officials over their land reform policies and other governance issues.
"Cloete said the government's land reform drive now looked more like it was intended to purge the white farmer."
What gave him his first clue?
Cloete is a slow learner.
His spokeswoman Jenni Williams was well advised to quit in disgust last week after his latest exercise in appeasement when he appealed to the "goodwill" of the government while failing to get an audience with Mugabe.
Gee, that's too bad. Guess they should have thought about that, aye?
Hope they don't come knocking on the US taxpayers doors looking for handouts.
Starvation and AIDs. I hope they feel they were worth dieing for. They "chose" to dig their own graves in so many ways.
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