Zim's CFU wants to help revive farming
2013-01-18 10:04
Special Report
Chinese vice premier Wang Yang has urged Zimbabwe to ensure peace and political stability ahead of elections this year.
Harare - Zimbabwean white farmers dispossessed of their
farms under President Robert Mugabe's land reform laws are seeking dialogue
with government to help revive the country's ailing agricultural sector, their
union said on Thursday.
"This solution must re-establish the basic fundamental
foundations needed for rapid economic recovery and economic gain," said
Charles Taffs, president of the predominantly white Commercial Farmers Union
(CFU).
The union is also proposing that a bond underwritten by a
top global financier be created to compensate former white farmers for
properties seized.
The controversial land reform introduced by Mugabe in 2000
to reverse colonial imbalances brought Zimbabwe's agricultural sector to its
knees.
Over 4 000 white farmers were forcibly removed from their
land and their farms given to landless blacks, many of them with no formal
farming skills.
Mugabe has said Zimbabwe will compensate farmers for
improvements made on their farms but not pay for land, saying Britain, the
country's former colonial ruler must do so.
Since the land reforms were introduced over a decade ago,
Zimbabwe has gone from being a net food importer to being unable to feed its
population, leaving people dependent on aid.
"We at the CFU firmly believe that this situation need
not continue and that a solution to this crisis can be found," said Taffs.
Some dispossessed farmers are now plying their trade in
neighbouring countries, and other groups have sought compensation through the
regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal.
- SAPA
