Zimbabwe president tells white farmers their land is safe

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has assured Zimbabwe’s white farmers that their land will not be taken.

White farmers at Emmerson Mnangagwa’s rally in Harare on Saturday. Picture: AP

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has assured Zimbabwe’s white farmers that their land will not be taken, calling on them to work together with the government ahead of elections on July 30.

Under his predecessor, Robert Mugabe, white farmers were evicted in favour of landless black people from 2000 by a policy that wrecked agriculture and triggered an economic collapse.

Less than two weeks before Zimbabwe’s first elections since Mugabe’s ouster, Mr Mnangagwa moved to quash any fears the practice would be repeated.

“This issue of new (land) invasions is a thing of the past. The rule of law must now apply,” he told a group of about 200 white and Asian people in Harare, adding that the “animal farm mentality” was a thing of the past.

“I am saying we should cease to talk about who owns the farm in terms of colour. It is criminal talking about that.

“A farmer, a black farmer, a white farmer, is a Zimbabwean farmer.”

Mr Mnangagwa said his government was “racially blind” and needed the expertise of everyone across the economy.

Zimbabwe’s white population has fallen to less than 1 per cent of the country’s 16 million after Mugabe imposed the policy to expropriate farms in 2000. Agricultural output crashed in the after­math, with investors leaving and mass unemployment forcing millions of Zimbabweans out of the country to seek work.

Mr Mnangagwa acknowledged the failure of the land reforms, saying the expertise of white people in the farming sector was still needed and encouraging them to take part in rebuilding Zimbabwe.

“We must build the Zimbabwe we want. We want to restore the status of Zimbabwe as a food basket of the region,” he said.

Farmer Louisa Horsely, 51, said Mr Mnangagwa had given the white community a lot of encouragement. “I wanted to know if my husband’s expertise is still needed if he wants to farm and wants to help other people to farm … It sounds (like) he wants us to be part of it.”

AFP