Zimbabwe flogs white farmers' equipment

Zimbabwe flogs white farmers' equipment

FARMING equipment has been lying idle after white farmers were violently driven out of their land

• Nyambuya's workers desert farm

By Agencies

THE Zimbabwe government is selling to new black farmers tractors, combines and other machinery formerly owned by white farmers whose land was seized under President Robert Mugabe's controversial land reform programme, state media said.

"This equipment is owned by former commercial farmers who are largely hostile and unsupportive to the land reform programme," Lands Minister John Nkomo said in a statement quoted by state-run daily The Herald.

Nkomo said government has so far "acquired 140 tractors, seven combine harvesters ... and 3,262 irrigation pipes".

The equipment is now being sold to new black farmers who are growing wheat.

Mugabe's government in December ruled it would "compulsorily acquire" any farming equipment and material left behind by white farmers.

Under the new regulations, it is an offence for a farmer to damage or get rid off any equipment without the authorisation from the lands minister.

The government has accused white farmers who lost their land of trying to export, lock up or destroy their equipment.

Four years ago, the government embarked on the controversial reform programme to acquire millions of hectares (acres) of land from whites and redistribute it to blacks.

A small group of about 4,500 whites farmers owned a third of the country's land including 70% of prime farmland before the government launched the program in February 2000.

Fewer than 400 white farmers now remain in Zimbabwe and own just 3% of the country's land, according to a government audit of the land reform programme.

A combination of factors, including poor planning, lack of resources, HIV/AIDS and drought have led to a huge slump in Zimbabwe's agricultural production.

The government will pay, in batches, for the equipment it is acquiring, with the first 25% paid out within 30 days of acquisition, and balance paid over five years for equipment and 12 months for material.

But it has refused to pay for the land it took away from white farmers saying it would only pay for improvements because that land was stolen from Zimbabweans by colonial settlers.

Some farmers who have been offered compensation for the improvements on their former properties have turned down the money, contesting the sums offered.
AFP
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