April 07, 2006, 12:45
Zimbabwe's government, battling an economic crisis which critics partly blame on its seizures of white-owned farms, is now targeting firms with multiple or huge land holdings, an official newspaper reported today.
But analysts say the new drive - which could affect timber and sugar plantations - would further damage Zimbabwe's investment climate and international image. Zimbabwe, once a net exporter of grain to southern Africa, has suffered food shortages over the last five years as its farming sector has been hit by drought and disruptions linked to President Robert Mugabe's controversial land reforms.
The Herald newspaper said Didymus Mutasa, the national state security minister, told a government media briefing that while many farms had been redistributed to landless blacks since 2000, "quite a lot" still remained in the hands of private firms. "Government is investigating shareholding in the private companies that own huge farms, with the view of redistributing the land to needy people," it said.
More threats to property rights
The daily quoted Mutasa, who is also in charge of the government's lands, land reform and resettlement department, as saying: "Quite a lot of land is still being held in the hands of companies and we would want to look into that thoroughly." Mutasa was not immediately available for comment. But John Robertson, a leading economic consultant, said the government drive would further undermine property rights in a country which has largely been shunned by foreign investors since the start of its land seizures.
Analysts say only about 600 of Zimbabwe's 4 500 white farmers have kept their land after the government launched a sometimes violent campaign six years ago to redistribute farms. Critics have blamed the land seizures for a sharp drop in Zimbabwe's agricultural production, part of a wider economic crisis that has led to shortages of food, fuel and foreign exchange, rocketing unemployment and triple digit inflation.
The government says the agricultural crisis is due in large part to drought, and accuses its Western critics of applying policies aimed at undermining its rule over the former British colony. - Reuters
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