New Year Same Bull
Zimbabwean farmers get temporary reprieve

Fri Jan 12, 2007 4:31 PM GMT

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government has extended an eviction deadline for dozens of white farmers still holding onto land listed for seizure by the state, and for an unspecified number of blacks illegally occupying some farms.

The farmers initially had up to February 3 to vacate all land targeted by the government, but state media reported on Friday that the lands ministry would now allow the white commercial farmers and the black settlers to stay on until after the harvest in August.

Under the rules, producers of the staple maize crop have up to July 31 while seed maize growers have an August 31 deadline.

"The outgoing farmers should be enabled to harvest their crops without any disruptions in that process," Ngoni Masoka, permanent secretary in the lands ministry, was quoted as saying by the official Herald newspaper.

Masoka was unavailable for comment on Friday.

Officially 500-600 white farmers still own land in Zimbabwe, down from about 4,500 before President Robert Mugabe embarked on a controversial land seizure drive in 2000.

But the government says dozens of other whites are still hanging onto their farms "illegally" and many blacks are also occupying some properties unlawfully.

The government's land redistribution programme officially aims to equitably distribute prime farmland, 75 percent of which was occupied by 4,500 white farmers, although much of the land has ended up in the hands of government and ruling party officials.

Zimbabwe's Gazetted Land Act, which was passed last month, gave the white farmers and illegal black land occupiers up to 90 days to vacate land acquired by the state.

Last week, State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, who is also in charge of land reform, said government would soon start issuing eviction notices to farmers and occupiers still on gazetted farmland.

"My ministry will issue notices to vacate these and expect compliance in terms of the law, failure of which will result in prosecution," Mutasa said in a statement issued Saturday.

Those found guilty could face up to two years in jail.

Critics say Mugabe's land reforms have destroyed commercial agriculture in the country, a former regional bread basket that has increasingly found it difficult to feed itself and is in the grips of its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980.

Reuters