-Caveat Lector-
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Date sent: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 22:25:31 -0800
Poor Zimbabweans. They thought that killing those White farmers
and stealing their land would end all that racism by the people who were
feeding them. It didn't work. Imagine that!
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=377578
Mugabe signs land deal with Chinese to tackle food crisis
By Basildon Peta Southern Africa Correspondent
12 February 2003
Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, has awarded a contract to grow food
crops on more than 100,000 hectares to a Chinese company in a desperate attempt
to avert an unprecedented farming crisis.
The land was mostly seized from white farmers and is now lying derelict after its new
black owners failed to take it up because no agricultural equipment was available.
Mr Mugabe's decision to approve the land allocations to the China International
Water and Electric Corporation, a state-owned company, contradicts his claims that
he wants to empower black Zimbabweans by giving them land seized from white
farmers.
State media said the deal would restore Zimbabwe's agricultural strength to its
former position of glory in Africa's agriculture sector. It proved that Mr Mugabe's
policy of co-operating with Asia and former Communist countries in Eastern Europe
at the expense of the West was paying dividends.
Mr Mugabe has said that his government will no longer work with the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank but will concentrate on finding new friends in
Asia.
But a senior government official said the deal was a direct indictment of Mr Mugabe's
chaotic land reforms. "I think what it proves is that our system of chasing farm
owners and confiscating their land has not worked,'' said the official, who was
interviewed on condition of anonymity.
"We are now stuck with a huge amount of derelict land, which could have been under
good use if the politicians had taken our advice to implement a phased and
systematic land reform exercise.''
Joseph Made, the Agriculture Minister, publicly admitted for the first time last month
that most of the seized land had not been taken by its new owners.
In some of the most important agricultural provinces, less than half of the land
allocated to blacks has been occupied. New black occupants often become
frustrated by the government's failure to give them resources to farm and return to
communal areas, where there is infrastructure such as boreholes.
The government is trying to lure back commercial farmers displaced from their
properties by violent occupations and seizures, which began three years ago and
accelerated after the President was re-elected last year in polls that independent
observers said were rigged.
Mr Mugabe's government claims that it has drafted a memorandum of
understanding, which awaits signing. But farmers say nothing has materialised from
talks that began a few weeks ago.
As part of the deal, the government wants to give back to white farmers some seized
properties in exchange for farming equipment needed to help to resettle black
farmers.
The white farmers have rejected the offer, saying the government is not sincere.
According to state media, the deal with the Chinese will yield at least 2.1 million
tons
of maize a year, enough to feed Zimbabwe's 12 million people. The project, which is
expected to start soon, would play an important role in reducing inflation, which
reached 200 per cent last month. The Chinese are expected to bring in massive
irrigation equipment for use on the project.
Meanwhile, in a sign of the country's deepening economic troubles, a parliamentary
inquiry said the national airline was heading for collapse. Silas Mangono, head of the
inquiry, said two of Air Zimbabwe's six planes had been grounded because there was
no hard currency for spare parts.
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