Mr Christie appears to be extremely out of touch with what actually took place and is still taking place in Zimbabwe with regard to Robert Mugabe’s ‘land policy’. In particular, this question: “Many of the remaining white farmers are highly critical of the CFU”. Your readers should be given the correct facts which are:
- Out of 4 500 white farmers, there are but a handful remaining who are buddies of Mugabe.
- All the 4 500 white farmers had their land stolen, their assets stolen and no compensation has ever been paid. Between the British government’s reneging on signed deals, and the Zimbabwe government, it is almost a certainty that, 32 years after independence, no compensation will ever be paid.
When Mr Christie says: “White farmers are more concerned with getting restitution than supporting farmers on the land”, nothing could be further from the truth. But white farmers have realised that they will never be allowed back on the land because they are white. An article from the Zimbabwe Herald of 16 July 2012 stated that Mugabe’s government is going to prosecute any black farm owner who hires a farm back to the original owner. The white farmer who has tried to hire his own farm back again will also be prosecuted.
In another article from The Star Lionel October of the SA government said: “the bilateral agreement (between SA and Zim) was law” and noted that there was a process of negotiations over the matter (of compensation for property stolen by the Zimbabwe government) from South Africans.
Your readers should be told that no SA farmer (and I am one) who also farmed in Zimbabwe has ever received a cent for his farm and assets being stolen. While your work must get the highest praise, the SA farming public must be told that is what is stolen from a white man is never going to be paid for, even if the courts decide otherwise. The only crime Zimbabwean farmers committed was to be the best producers in Africa and Zimbabwe was the ‘bread basket of Africa’ before we were thrown off the land.
Read the feature ‘There’s no alternative’.
