mers are Zimbabweans “like everybody else” and therefore deserve to be given land, thugs from his own party are still evicting farmers from Sebakwe Conservancy just outside Kwe Kwe. Are these not also Zimbabweans – like everybody else?
This astounding policy U-turn by Zanu (PF) comes in the wake of successful negotiations with the Commercial Farmers’ Union, whom many former commercial farmers accuse of inertia during the land invasions and collaboration since then. The Union, according to Mutasa, ‘now appreciates the government’s land policy’.
Mutasa is on record as saying that he does not want to see a white person owning land in Zimbabwe. Although he uses the word ‘ownership’ rather loosely, it appears that, under the scheme, ownership of the land will remain with the government and nobody, black nor white, will have security of tenure.
While the CFU’s pragmatism in persisting to seek a way forward, where many could see no possible way, is commendable, we would sound a note of caution. The fact that evictions of commercial farmers continue to take place, while Zanu (PF) persists in pursuing racist anti-white policies, is cause for concern.
Nothing is being said, however, about the hundreds of thousands of farm workers who were displaced during the farm invasions – losing not only their jobs but also their homes.
Our sense of justice and fair play is discomforted by these ‘negotiations’.
There is no talk of compensation, there is no talk of restitution, there is no talk of those beaten and murdered in the process of the ‘land resettlement exercise’, there is no talk of the party fatcats who continue to enjoy the fruits of ill-gotten gains, and have enriched themselves obscenely by asset-stripping farms and estates all over the country.
When one sups with the devil, one needs a very long spoon.