- Dear Family and Friends,
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- I'm sure it won't come as a surprise
to hear that it's all off - again - and the denials have begun, regarding
who is allowed to grow food in our hungry country. Zimbabwe made international
news a fortnight ago with the announcement that the government were asking
white commercial farmers to return to the land and get some food growing.
Minister of State Security, Didymus Mutasa said that he had held
meetings with the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) and that they (the
CFU) now understood how to work with government. Mutasa was quoted as saying:
"we asked them to submit applications for land and these will be treated
favourably. They are Zimbabweans like everyone else."
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- The Vice President of the CFU, Mr Gifford,
then agreed that they had indeed been talking to Minister Mutasa about
the future of agriculture in Zimbabwe. Gifford said: "In fact, we
have just submitted to the government 200 applications for land from our
members."
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- Hardly were the words out of Gifford's
mouth when Minister Mutasa was quoted in the media again but by now there
was clearly some difficulty with the numbers. Mutasa said: "Some
farmers have applied and their papers are being considered like any application,
but we do not have a number like 200 applications."
-
- In the same week that all this was happening,
20 farmers in the Midlands were being given 48 hours to vacate
their farms. At this point Justice for Agriculture (JAG), whose name explains
their function, were asked what they thought the CFU was doing. JAG were
damning in their condemnation of the CFU and said: "the leadership (of
CFU) is still on their farms and have politically been left alone. Some
individuals in the CFU have expanded their operations on the back of this
crisis acting as agents for the government. They have chosen to go this
lucrative route at the demise of their members."
-
- And now, barely a fortnight later, it
seems it's all off, and Minister Mutasa is being quoted on South African
television. Mutasa said "No white farmer is being invited back."
The Minister said he had not spoken to any foreign journalists and that
all their claims about farmers being asked back were wrong.
-
- In the two weeks that this has been going
on a lot of people have asked me if I would go back to farming on the back
of this information. It' a simple and obvious answer - No, not a chance.
The reason is just as simple and obvious - nothing whatsoever has changed.
Until property title is restored, until compensation is given, until law
and order is restored, until accountability is enforced - nothing whatever
has changed. At this point in time the chances of an arbitrary man walking
past a farm and deciding he wants it, and the crops, implements and
infrastructure - and then taking it all and having his theft supported by
police and government - are as a strong as ever. No way, no chance. Not
sour grapes, just plain and honest common sense.
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- Until next week, love cathy
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- Copyright cathy buckle6th May 2006 http://africantears.netfirms.com
My books "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are
available from: orders@africabookcentre.com vs. Gaira
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