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Zimbabwe

White farmers say still to receive land from Zimbabwe government

HARARE - The Zimbabwe government has not given land to any white farmer despite encouraging the displaced farmers earlier this year to apply for farms, the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said on Monday.

The vice-president of the white-member CFU, Trevor Gifford, told ZimOnline by telephone last night that the government was yet to respond to applications for land by former whites whose farms it seized over the past six years for redistribution to landless blacks.

State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, who is in charge of land reform, had said the government would accept applications for land from whites in a bid to revive the agricultural sector that has suffered massive decline since the beginning of farm seizures in 2000.

Gifford said: "Lots and lots of farmers applied for land after the invitation. But none has been offered land to date. Not one that we know of.

"We have been following up on the matter with the ministry. But each time we ask, the ministry officials tell us that no applications from former white farmers have been processed.

"This is despite President (Robert) Mugabe's announcements that any Zimbabwean regardless of colour will get an opportunity to farm if they are capable. It seems the matter is being racialised."

Mutasa was not immediately available for comment on the matter last night. But the land reform minister earlier this year held several meetings with CFU leaders during which he invited applications for farms from the organisation's members.

Reports of Mutasa's invitation for white applications came as influential Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono as well as Vice-Presidents Joseph Msika and Joice Mujuru on separate occasions publicly called for no more evictions of the country's few remaining white farmers.

But the Harare administration has maintained conflicting positions over whether it will invite back whites to resuscitate some of the farms it gave over to blacks but now lie unused because the new owners are no longer interested in farming.

Farm seizures have also continued while the Minister of Agriculture Joseph Made and his Justice counterpart, Patrick Chinamasa, have in the past said the government would not give back land to whites and that in fact it shall continue seizing more white farms to allocate to blacks who may still need land.

The farm seizures that began in 2000 and which Mugabe says were meant to correct an unjust land tenure system that reserved 75 percent of the best arable land for minority whites while the majority blacks were cramped on poor soils have been blamed for plunging Zimbabwe into severe food shortages.

The southern African country that was once a regional breadbasket has largely survived on food handouts from international relief agencies for the past six years and will this year require more food aid for at least three quarters of its 12 million people.

Meanwhile, Gifford rejected as untrue claims last week by Mashonaland West provincial governor Nelson Samkange that his office had offered land to 200 farmers from the province but they had turned down the offer.

The CFU official said no white farmer was ever offered land by Samkange's office. The Mashonaland West governor was also not immediately available to respond to Gifford's comments.