Tourists used to go to Rhodesia to view the ruins of the mythic greatness of old Zimbabwe. The only evidence of any old civilization in the southern part of Africa. Now they can go to Zimbabwe and view the ruins of Rhodesia.
White former farmers should be given 90 days to vacate their farms if the land they occupy has been allocated to a black person to avoid legal battles, the Zimbabwean government has reportedly said.
According to the News Day, Land and Rural Resettlement Minister Douglas Mombeshora said government would not allow contract farming arrangements where the indigenous farm owners would get only 10% of total produce while their white partners grabbed the lion’s share. Only white farmers specialising in dairy and cattle breeding or those who openly support the ruling Zanu-PF party would be spared, a Daily News report added. Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) warned on Monday of "more chaos" on white and former white-owned farms. MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu said the intensification of the land grab policy would not benefit the ordinary Zimbabwean but the well-heeled and the politically connected.
President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party launched the land reforms in 2000, taking over white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks. Mugabe said the reforms were meant to correct colonial land ownership imbalances.
Clashes with veterans
At least 4 000 white commercial farmers were evicted from their farms.
The land seizures were often violent, claiming the lives of several white farmers during clashes with veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation struggle.
Mugabe at the time also warned black Zimbabweans against partnering with whites in agriculture deals.