Johannesburg | Wednesday
SOUTH Africa’s Oppenheimer dynasty is planning to hand over some of the 140 000 hectares of farmland that the Anglo American Corporation owns in Zimbabwe for settlement by impoverished black farmers, a representative for the family said on Tuesday.
The Harare-based privately owned newspaper the Daily News reported Tuesday that the government planned to seize at least 65 000 hectares of land from the gold mining giant mining giant, which is controlled by the Oppenheimers through De Beers Investments, which is chaired by dynasty head Nicky Oppenheimer.
It quoted Vice President Joseph Msika as saying during a visit to an Anglo American farm on Monday that the government wanted a total of 65 000 hectares of Anglo American land before the end of the year.
But in Johannesburg, family representative Clifford Elphick said: “There is no seizure of land. Nicky has been making some proposals and what the government said yesterday is the result of ongoing talks between himself and the Zimbabwean government”.
“This is an interim measure to allow people to plough and plant their annual crop. Discussions have not been finalised and are still ongoing,” Elphick said.
He declined to provide details of the discussions, but said: “All I can say is some aspects of the (Daily News) report are not correct.”
The powerful South African-based conglomerate owns Hippo Valley, a large sugar estate in southern Zimbabwe and 50 000 hectares of cattle ranches in the western part of the country.
In September last year President Robert Mugabe made a rare concession on his controversial land reform plan telling Anglo American, that it could keep its properties.
The Zimbabwean government has seized 4 558 white-owned farms totalling 8,8-million hectares since it launched its land reform scheme last year. – AFP