The CFU said last week that ongoing discussions on the unions compensation and recovery proposal submitted to the government in May have triggered a surge in renewals of membership by past members who had left the country. We find this extremely encouraging that they have found a renewed faith in their union, the CFU said in a statement to members.
The union has forwarded to government an ambitious agricultural recovery and compensation proposition under which it wants the Harare regime to agree to its request to turn money owed for expropriated farms into debt that the Harare regime should pay back over time.
The proposal is based on a cost-recovery model that would allow the cash-strapped Zimbabwe government to gradually pay off affected white farmers for land acquired while also reviving the countrys battered agriculture sector. The renewed interest in the union comes about four months after the CFU embarked on a membership drive targeting former members in a move
meant to provide it with the financial wherewithal to mount an effective legal challenge of President Robert Mugabes controversial
land reform programme.
The union, which at its peak in the late 1990s was Zimbabwes strongest farmers body with a membership of more than 4,500, is seeking to bring back into the fold some of its former members who left the organisation since 2000 after they were ejected from their farms by Mugabes supporters.
Hordes of Zanu (PF) supporters, so-called war veterans and members of the army and police have stepped up farm invasions despite the formation of an inclusive government by Mugabe and arch-rival Morgan Tsvangirai last year.
Commercial farmers say invaders have since raided at least 100 of about 300 remaining white-owned commercial farms, a development that has intensified doubts over whether the unity government will withstand attempts by Zanu (PF) hardliners to sabotage it.
Post published in: News