Zimbabwe Confession

I have been following the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe under cruel Robert Mugabe for over 5 years.

President-for-life Mugabe kicked out the farmers who were feeding the people. His country was a net exporter of maize mainly to neighboring countries, except during the drought years of 1984, 1992 and 1993, when large quantities of maize were imported. The maize exports peaked at 731 000 tonnes in 1990 and averaged around 250 000 tonnes per year from 1993 to 1998. Source: UN FAO

Mugabe kicked the productive farmers off their land because they were white. And he gave the land first to his friends and those he favored.

Did his friends intend to farm? No. They wanted to have country estates on free land.

We have watched this develop over the past five years or so. We knew that the food production would drop because huge areas of farming were being taken out of production. And the inevitable result is people are starving. News24.com reports:

International aid agencies estimate that some 4.3 million people out of Zimbabwe's population of 13 million require food assistance.

'Zim black farmers to blame'

News reports says that a government agricultural official is finally speaking the truth. At least the most important part of it - the deputy minister for Agriculture, Sylvester Nguni.

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."

Nguni's remarks at a congress of the Zimbabwe Farmers' Union came on the heels of warnings by the country's two vice-presidents that the government would reclaim under-utilised farms.

And they are talking about doing something about it.

"We will not hesitate to reclaim all the under-utilised farms and allocate (them) to other farmers," Vice President Joseph Msika was quoted as saying two weeks ago.

"We do not want people who simply build homes at their new farms without using the land for productive purposes and we want people to work the land to avoid chronic food shortages."

Thank God something is happening.