Mnangagwa defends early 2000s Land Reform Programme – says white farmers who left thought they were superior
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has defended government’s Land Reform Programme, declaring that white farmers who upped and left the country, as a result, thought that they were superior to the “African people of Zimbabwe.”
Speaking on a panel discussing investment, governance and international relations at the ongoing World Governments Summit, Mnangagwa said Zimbabweans were happy and felt independent after reclaiming land that had been taken from them by colonialists.
Over 4,000 mainly white farmers lost their farms during a government led Land Reform Programme that went on to redistribute the land to some 150,000 black Zimbabweans.
A significant number left the country for South Africa, Zambia, Namibia and Australia.
Collapse of the willing buyer, willing seller model which had been agreed on at independence in 1980 due to slow uptake, poor funding and withdrawal of support by the British and Americans resulted in chaotic land repossession in the early 2000s.
“We seized the land and gave it to our people but in-spite of all that constraint we have developed and we are happy that we have developed on our own and feel very independent,” said Mnangagwa.
“Land did not belong to a race, it belonged to Zimbabweans so when the colonialists took land from us time came when we asserted ourselves to take back our land.
“Those who wanted to have land on the same basis as the African people of Zimbabwe remained but those who felt they were superior left.”
Mnangagwa added that sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe and a hit on its economy were a result of government’s decision to take back the land.
According to online sources, just about 400 white farmers remain in Zimbabwe.
A US$3.5 billion purse was however agreed on as compensation to former white farmers, who are now dotted across the globe, for property lost as a result of the land programme.
Liberation war veterans, tired of government promises that they will get land, led the programme that saw between seven and 12 white farmers killed and hundreds maimed. _*NewZimbabwe*_
