Mass expropriations in Zimbabwe

At zero hour this morning, thousands of white farmers were ordered off their land

The regime of Robert Mugabe continues its manic downward spiral with mass expropriations against the only people keeping a substantial part of Zimbabwe’s population fed – the white farmers.

The Agrarian Reform Law approved by Parliament in May stipulated that the white farmers on the list, numbering 2,900, must leave their farms by zero hours on Friday 9th August. These held a meeting on Thursday under the auspices of the Commercial Farmers’ Union but no comment was issued.

The farms will be occupied by the “war veterans” who fought for independence from Britain and many of whom wander around the cities, unemployed. The plan to turn these urban delinquents into farmers is bound to fail from the outset since many of them have no experience whatever of agriculture.

Robert Mugabe’s quarter of a century at the helm of Zimbabwe has seen the country descend into chaos, with widespread unemployment, violence, robbery, and now, starvation, for the first time. The white farmers are an easy target because they own most of the land and it is against they that Mugabe now turns in a desperate effort to find a scapegoat before the finger of blame is pointed where it should – at him.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru