He made remarks during celebrations to mark his 91st birthday in Victoria Falls today.
Mugabe blamed expelled former Zanu (PF) Mashonaland East Chairperson, Raymond Kaukonde, for protecting white farmers in defiance of a party directive for them to be kicked out.
“I was talking to the Minister of Lands and I think it was the day before yesterday and we were looking at each and every province and we started with Mashonaland East. In Goromonzi, they (white farmers) are 40. From Goromonzi, we moved to Mutoko and Murewa and they are 123.
Mind you this is Mashonaland East.
“Then I said so some of our leaders had been hiding them (white farmers) in farms and saying the farms had been given. So I said let’s stop here,” said Mugabe.
“Vanga vakahwandiswa nanaKaukonde (They were being given refuge by Kaukonde and his team).Saka ndakati tombomira ipapo (I said let us stop there.”
White farmers were kicked out of their farms following the launch of the controversial Land Reform Programme by Zanu (PF) in 2002. The programme was criticized for being campaign gimmick.
Mugabe said that after the purge in Mashonaland East, Zanu (PF) will launch the campaign to flush out white farmers to other provinces.
He blamed Zanu (PF) officials for misrepresenting to him that farms formerly owned by white commercial farms has been taken for resettlement by the government.
Mugabe threatened to seize safaris owned by whites in the country in protest against “US sanctions” on Zimbabwe.
“We are now going to invade those forests. It’s now time that we become owners not of the vote but of that which the vote brought us,”he said.
“We had to force them out. We kicked them out and we did that because it was necessary,” said Mugabe.
Post published in: News