Zimbabwe’s white farmers offer 2.4 million acres to blacks
Zimbabwe’s white landowners and private financial backers today offered to give the government 2.4 million acres of farmland to resettle landless blacks.
The offer was made in hopes of breaking a year long deadlock in negotiations with the government over the confiscation and violent occupation by black militants of hundreds of white-owned farms, the consortium of farmers’ leaders and business interests said.
The group, calling itself the Zimbabwe Joint Resettlement Initiative, said it had land immediately available and pledged farmers would assist resettled families with technical advice and equipment.
It also promised that the Commercial Farmers Union, a consortium member representing about 4,500 mostly white farmers, would end all litigation against the government over land seizures.
Zimbabwe gained independence from white-majority rule in 1980, and the government of President Robert Mugabe promised to redistribute farmland to hundreds of thousands of landless blacks.
But land reform has proceeded extremely slowly because of corruption and mismanagement, the opposition charges and several thousand white farmers still own one-third of the country’s farmland.
Ruling party militants began occupying hundreds of white-owned farms last year, demanding they be seized and redistributed to landless blacks.
The government also planned to nationalise up to 14 million acres of farmland without paying compensation to the white descendants of mostly British and South African colonial era settlers.
The government ignored court rulings ordering it to clear the farm occupiers and it broke off talks with farmers last year after the union won a Supreme Court ruling declaring the land seizures illegal. The government has promised to continue land seizures anyway.
After more than a year of disruptions to farming operations in the agriculture-based economy, the consortium shared ‘‘a vision of a racially integrated agricultural sector that meets national requirements in terms of employment, food security, value added processing and exports,’’ said Malcolm Vowles, the group’s spokesman.
The group envisioned 20,000 black families currently living in impoverished, overcrowded peasant districts being resettled on the 2.4 million acres.
Vowles said the new initiative will address aspects of compensation for landowners, possibly funded by foreign donors, once dialogue has been re-established with the government.
The offer was submitted to Vice President Joseph Msika, head of the government’s resettlement committee.
‘‘We look forward to a positive response,’’ Vowles said.
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said last year the government was not interested in what he called token offers of land by whites to deter the land seizures.
