About 200 displaced white farmers from Mashonaland West province have turned down an offer of farms by the government, saying there was no guarantee the government would not in future turn back on the offer and evict them again, reports ZimOnline.
Authoritative sources said Masonaland West provincial governor Nelson Samkange offered the farmers — among the close to 4 000 whites to lose land to the government over the past six years — new farms in the wheat-producing area of Tengwe which lies in his province about 260km north-west of Harare.
Samkange, who, according to sources, had permission from President Robert Mugabe’s office to give back land to “whites willing to work with the government”, had wanted the farmers back in Tengwe by 20 May in time to be able to plant a winter wheat crop.
“In fact, we were instructed to make available fuel for the about 200 white farmers who were to be allocated farms in the area of Tengwe. The idea was that the farmers would move in, quickly revive the run-down farms and boost wheat production,” said a senior official with the government’s Agricultural Research and Extension (Arex) services department.
Tengwe is one of the prime farming areas in Mashonaland West producing mainly wheat, tobacco and maize. But most of the farms there are now derelict with infrastructure such as dams and tobacco barns in a state of disrepair after villagers resettled by the government on the former white farms abandoned them.
The plan to bring back white farmers to Tengwe collapsed after ruling Zanu-PF party militants chased away a white farmer, Justin Boddy, from his Elephants Farm near Tengwe at the same time that Samkange’s office was trying to convince the farmers that it would be safe to return, according to our source.
”What happened to Boddy took them [white farmers] by surprise and they have since developed cold feet on the whole thing … they are saying they could never be sure that they would not be evicted again as happened in 2000,” said the Arex official, who spoke on condition he was not named.
The white farmers were also put back by the state of dereliction of farms in Tengwe and were unsure whether it would be possible to revive production especially given Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation and deteriorating business environment.
Samkange confirmed that his office had offered land to white farmers but would not shed much detail on the matter only saying: “We had extended our hand but they have snubbed us”.
It was not possible to get comment on the matter on Sunday from the Commercial Farmers Union that represents white farmers.
There have been conflicting statements from the government on whether it will invite back whites to resuscitate some of the farms it seized over the past six years but which now lie unused because the new black owners are apparently no longer interested in farming.
At one time earlier this year, State Security and also Land Reform Minister, Didymus Mutasa, told ZimOnline that his department had invited whites to apply for farmland from the government saying that those who qualify would be allocated farms.
Influential Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono as well as Vice-Presidents Joseph Msika and Joice Mujuru have also on several occasions in the past said there should be no more eviction of the few remaining white farmers.
But farm seizures are still continuing, with Minister of Agriculture Joseph Made and Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa saying the government would not give back land to whites and that it will continue seizing more white farms to allocate to blacks who may still need land.
The farm seizures that began in 2000 and which Mugabe says were meant to correct an unjust land tenure system that reserved 75% of the best land for minority whites while the majority blacks were cramped on poor soils have been blamed Zimbabwe’s severe food shortages.
The Southern African country that was once a regional breadbasket has largely survived on food handouts from international relief agencies for the past six years and will this year require more food aid for at least three quarters of its 12-million people. – ZimOnline