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Snouts
in the Trough 26th
May 2002 Almost
300,000 acres of prime land seized from white farmers in Zimbabwe has been
handed out to President Mugabe's closest allies, including 10 cabinet ministers,
seven MPs and his brother-in-law. Land has also gone to key officials who
supervised the widely condemned presidential polls in March, when Mr Mugabe won
re-election after a violent campaign. Zimbabwe's army commander, its police
chief and the civil servants placed in charge of the land seizures have rewarded
themselves with farms. Mr Mugabe's land campaign, which targets 95 per cent of
the 4,000 white farmers for dispossession, is supposedly aimed at helping the
rural poor. Yet
the launch of the Model A2 resettlement scheme last November, designed to create
a new class of black commercial farmer, has sparked a scramble for land by
Zimbabwe's elite. The winners names have been listed in successive editions of
the weekly Sunday Mail. Most have staked their gains in the two months since the
election. An analysis of these official lists shows that almost half of Mr
Mugabe's cabinet has been given land. Herbert Murerwa, the industry and trade
minister, has been awarded Rise Holm farm near Arcturus, east of Harare. David
Parirenyatwa, the acting health minister, has been allocated Rudolphia farm in
the same area. Swithun Mombeshora, the transport minister, has won Ormeston farm
near Lion's Den, north-west of Harare. Vice-President Joseph Msika has been
given a farm in the Umguza block in Matabeleland North province, while Reward
Marufu, Mr Mugabe's brother-in-law, received Leopard's Vlei farm near Glendale,
north of Harare. Squatters
invaded many of these properties when they were owned by white farmers. Mr
Mugabe refused to evict the occupiers, but attitudes have changed since the
farms were handed out to the black elite and many of the squatters have been
moved on, clearing the way for the new owners. A member of the farming community
said this sudden willingness to apply the law was evidence of
"cherry-picking" by the president's allies in his Zanu PF party.
"We wondered why the occupiers were being moved off and then we saw who the
new owners were. This is an effort to supplant a white face with a black fat-cat
face," he said. Telegraph
(UK) - David Blair, Foreign Staff |