CNN ALLOW MUGABE TO MAKE LAND GRAB A RACE ISSUE: IT IS NOT THAT!

The CNN reporter was drawn into seeing the land issue into blacks against whites which is exactly which is exactly what Mugabe wants the whole world to do. It is not that at all!

The original land reform programme which the British agreed to fund during the Lancaster Talks was aimed at buying off some of the commercial farms and settling Zimbabwe’s peasants who constitute 60% or so of the country’s 13 million. In the first 20 years of the country’s independence a small fraction of the landless peasants were actually resettled. Mugabe and his cronies kept for themselves some of the farms meant for resettlement.

When Mugabe lost the 2000 constitutional referendum he wanted the land issue to be the only issue in the country. Zimbabweans had other important issues they wanted addressed; the country’s economy was already in decline, corruption and mismanagement were by then deeply entrenched, and on the political front the dictator had become increasingly repressive as he felt his popularity slipping. So to take attention away from all these other pressing issues Mugabe instigated the lawless and the senseless violence that have become the hallmark of the white farm invasion.

All of the white farms seized since 2000 have been given away to Mugabe’s cronies and the ruling elite and a few are occupied by the party’s thugs who spearheaded the seizures. The landless peasants, who were supposed to be the beneficiaries, have been forgotten.

Zimbabwe’s economy was heavily dependent of the foreign currency and raw materials produced by the country’s agricultural sector. Mugabe’s orchestrated seizure of commercial farms destroyed this sector precipitating the country’s economic melt down.

The country’s food production also suffered because the Mugabe cronies failed to maintain the farms’ high agricultural production. Last year 80% of our people needed imported food aid, sad for a country that used to self sufficient in food with enough excess to sell to other countries in the region.

On the political front Mugabe has successfully used the farm invasion as the smoke screen to hide his intentions of denying the people a meaningful say in the governance of the country. He still maintains it is the West that is seeking regime change in Zimbabwe, “they are punishing him for taking land away from the whites and giving it back to the blacks”, he claims. He has conveniently forgotten the reign of terror he unleashed on the people and the hundreds of innocent people he murdered last year to force the electorate to vote for him.

Mugabe’s on going white farm invasion is not settling white colonial injustices; that are only a cover. The dictator is using the farm invasions to hide the violent repression of the Zimbabwe populous to consolidate his iron grip on power. He is using the seized farms to reward all those who have remained loyal to his dictatorial rule.

“Zimbabwe belongs to Zimbabweans, pure and simple.” Mugabe said. In his Zimbabwe, the country belongs to him and his cronies; the rest of the people, black and white, count for nothing!