Zimbabwe -- The Fruits of Racist Redistribution

Mad Bobby Mugabe's government has at last begun to open its eyes to the catastrophic effects of its racist land redistribution policies. For years Mugabe and his henchmen have tried to explain the precipitous decline in Zimbabwe's agricultural production as the consequence of drought or of western, especially British, perfidity, but those excuses no longer fly.

News 24 (SA) reports:

Harare - Zimbabwe launched its strongest criticism of black farmers who benefited from its controversial land reforms, saying their apathy was responsible for a serious food crisis.

"We have a few people that are really committed to production while many others are doing nothing on the farms," deputy minister for Agriculture, Sylvester Nguni was quoted as saying by the state-owned Herald newspaper.

"The problem is that we gave land to people lacking the passion for farming and this is why every year production has been declining."

He said although an ongoing drought had contributed to reduced yields, "the biggest letdown has been that people without the slightest idea of farming got land and the result has been declining agricultural output."
...

Last month co-vice president Joyce Mujuru labelled new farmers who were under-utilising the land "saboteurs" and "perennial beggars."

Central bank chief Gideon Gono last week hit out at new farmers keeping farmland purely for its own sake and turning once productive farms into "weekend picnic venues" while the country is reeling under acute food shortages.

"We are not blind to the fact that it was not land for the sake of having it and merely looking at it that mattered to our liberators. It was not about having vast pieces of land and using them as braai (barbecue) spots and weekend picnic venues," Gono said.

Read it here.

So the policy of confiscating white-owned farms and giving them to Mugabe's political cronies didn't work. What is plan B?

The strong language used against the "new farmers" is ominous. Previously groups targeted by such language have suffered greatly. And what of the promise to re-confiscate unproductive farms? Will they be run by the government, or redistributed yet again, or what? To return them to their white owners is unthinkable in the current atmosphere of rabid racism. Such is the poisonous legacy of anti-colonialist ideology.