TUESDAY, 4.30PM
ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe, in his opening address to parliament, unveiled his most comprehensive plan yet to strip whites, foreign nationals and foreign companies of a total of 8,3-million hectares of land, intended for redistribution among the country’s 11,5-million black people.
A tax that will make large holdings unaffordable, a “one man one farm” law, and prohibitions on the ownership by foreigners or foreign companies of agricultural land were among the measures announced by Mugabe when he opened the parliamentary year with a statement of planned legislation.
Mugabe, 72, also told the 150 MPs of plans to punish those alleged to be guilty of racial, tribal, religious or gender discrimination, and making it a criminal offence knowingly to pass on the human immunodeficiency virus, which can lead to Aids. Experts say 700 Zimbabweans are now dying each week of Aids, which infects one in seven of the total population.