Mutasa tells banks to shun white farmers

Mutasa tells banks to shun white farmers

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By Staff Reporter

A ZIMBABWEAN cabinet minister has warned banks to shun the country’s few remaining white farmers, saying some of their ownership titles remain in dispute.

State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa said institutions seeking business dealings with white farmers, including Zimbabwe’s central bank, should check with his ministry first.

Analysts say only about 600 of Zimbabwe’s 4,500 white farmers have kept their land after the government launched a sometimes violent campaign six years ago to redistribute farms to landless blacks.

Critics have blamed the land seizures for a sharp drop in Zimbabwe’s agricultural production, part of a wider economic crisis that has led to shortages of food, fuel and foreign exchange, rocketing unemployment and triple digit inflation.

President Robert Mugabe’s government says the agricultural crisis is due in large part to drought, and blames its western critics for policies it says are aimed at undermining his rule over the former British colony.

Mutasa, who is also responsible for lands, land reform and resettlement, said banks and other institutions such as Zimbabwe’s electricity monopoly, must consult with his ministry on “the resettlement status” of white-owned farms they seek to do business with, the state-run Sunday Mail said.

Mutasa said many banks were ignoring newly-settled black farmers — who possess “offer letters” but not title deeds to their land — in favour of their established white counterparts.

“Comrade Didymus Mutasa said that there had been an outcry from new farmers that financial institutions had from the onset of the land reform programme been despising new farmers when giving loans, with the white farmers getting a bulk of the money,” the newspaper said.

Mutasa said many of the remaining white farmers were operating without official “offer letters” to retain their farms, while others continued to occupy properties already given out to black farmers. Mutasa was not available for comment on Sunday — Reuters
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