Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Monday warned new black farmers to either produce food on farms taken from whites or have the land seized by the government.
Speaking at a Heroes’ Day celebration, the long-time Southern African leader also warned that ”economic saboteurs” and illegal money changers will be harshly punished.
”Those with land should use it to prove they were indeed interested in farming in the first place,” Mugabe said.
”Those who can’t produce, be warned, we will take the land back. We now need to distinguish capable and committed farmers from holders of land who are mere chancers and who should be made to seek opportunities elsewhere,” he said.
About 4 000 white farmers have lost their land, often violently, since Mugabe launched his widely criticised land-reform programme in 2000 to redress the imbalances in land ownership from the colonial era.
Less than 600 farmers remain on their properties in Zimbabwe, once called a regional breadbasket, and the programme has been widely criticised as a failure.
”If farming is not in your blood, switch to what you are good at. We want those with land to use it. We don’t want to keep begging for food,” Mugabe told thousands who gathered to celebrate Zimbabwe’s fallen liberation struggle heroes.
Critics blame the land-reform programme in part for the country’s economic woes, saying the majority of its beneficiaries lacked the skills and means to farm and relied instead on state handouts. — AFP
