Zimbabwe update

In the wake of his election victory Mad Bobby Mugabe has begun to chart a sane course. ZW News reports:

Zimbabwe to pay white farmers, lure others back
Zim Online (SA)

Harare - The Zimbabwe government has secretly approached former owners of Kondozi farm to return and resuscitate the giant export-earning horticultural concern in what insiders said was part of a wider plan to recall expelled white farmers to revive the country’s collapsed agricultural sector. Impeccable sources said under the plan the Ministry of Agriculture will in coming months approach selected farmers, especially those with expertise in horticulture, tobacco and dairy production to ask them to return to Zimbabwe to farm. The farmers will be compensated for property and equipment destroyed during the government’s chaotic and often violent land reform exercise and not for loss of revenue. But the farmers will receive immense support and preferential treatment from the state to reestablish themselves on the land, according to the sources. As well as luring white farmers back to the land the government shall also select another group of farmers whom it will compensate at market value both for loss of land and equipment during the farm seizures.

At last, a gleam of sanity in Zimbabwe. Mugabe's government finally admits that its racist/socialist land policy has been disastrous and begins to take steps to repair the damage done. At least, that is the promise -- remember this is all unofficial and it is done under extreme duress. The article notes that in Zimbabwe, which used to be an exporter of food, production has fallen so far that without international aid as many as 12 million people would starve this year.

Read the whole thing here.