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Zanu-PF 'leads' apartheid drive
07/04/2008 13:14 - (SA)
Harare - A Zimbabwean union accused the ruling party on Monday of leading an "apartheid" campaign against white farmers as it tried to win popular support for Robert Mugabe ahead of a possible presidential run-off.
"At least 10 farms have been invaded in (southern) Masvingo and from Shamva through to Centenary (in the northeast) at least five farms have been invaded," Commercial Farmers Union president Trevor Gifford said.
Gifford said: "The situation is quite volatile. The police have intervened twice in Masvingo, but they can't do much about it since it's state-sponsored and orchestrated from the highest office of the land.
"People are being paid to basically carry out the wishes of the highest office. This is purely racial. We should be living in a country of harmony, but the state media is pushing racial hatred, which is not good for the country."
'Land must remain in our hands'
Mugabe intensified his land reform programme after losing a referendum on extending his presidential powers in 2000. Then his loyal war veterans were at the vanguard of the often violent occupations of some 4 000 white-owned farms.
"Just like what happened in 2000, this is racial," said Gifford, whose union predominantly represented white farmers. "The farms which are being invaded belong to third generation Zimbabwe, not British or American citizens.
"It's another apartheid. It's going to get out of hand if SADC does not have a grip on it," he said, referring to the Southern African Development Community regional bloc.
Gifford also warned that more invasions were expected to start in Mashonaland West province, north and west of the capital.
Mugabe, whose ruling ZANU-PF was seeking to discredit the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) by accusing it of planning to reverse the land reforms and bring whites back, had fanned the flames.
"Land must remain in our hands. The land is ours, it must not be allowed to slip back into the hands of whites," Mugabe was quoted as saying by the state daily Herald on Monday.
Critics blamed Mugabe's land reform programme for Zimbabwe's meltdown from regional breadbasket to economic basket case.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, 56, claimed outright victory in the March 29 presidential election, but the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) said there was no clear winner and had endorsed Mugabe for a second round vote.
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