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The Cold Reality 25th April 2003 The effect of a lack of political and economic
foresight, gross insensitivity to the white commercial farmers, greed and
corruption within the government all manifested themselves at the tobacco
auction floors which opened in Harare on Wednesday. Very few farmers delivered tobacco to the floors
because very little tobacco was produced during the last season. The opening
prices were very favourable and, under normal circumstances, would have pleased
the farmers and firmed up the national foreign currency reserves. But President Mugabe's quest to cling to power by
seizing fertile land from the white farmers through his ill-conceived, haphazard
land redistribution programme dashed all hope for economic recovery. The tobacco industry has been the mainstay of the
country's agro-based economy for many years and Zimbabwe's high quality tobacco
had only been rivalled by that grown in Brazil. As much as 40 percent of the country's foreign
currency was earned from the sale of flue-cured and burley tobacco, which earned
the nickname, the golden leaf. The destruction of the farming sector has also
resulted in thousands of farm workers losing their jobs, bringing untold
suffering among their families, some now reduced to paupers. As the nation watches in disgust, the Zanu PF
leadership continues shamelessly to plunder what is left of the once rich
agricultural sector by grabbing fertile farms which they have no clue how to use
profitably. Meanwhile, a nation that was once the breadbasket
of the southern Africa region is groaning from a self-inflicted sickness, on the
death bed of hunger and abject poverty, scrounging and scratching the bottom of
dustbins for something to sustain its dreary life. Daily News - Zimbabwe |