Hero’s welcome as white farmer is first to reclaim Zimbabwe land after fall of Mugabe
A WHITE Zimbabwean farmer evicted by the government of Robert Mugabe has returned to a hero’s welcome as the first to get his land back under the new president, in a sign of reform on an issue that had hastened the country’s international isolation. With a military escort, Robert Smart made his way into Lesbury farm about 124 miles east of Harare, the capital, on Thursday to cheers and song by dozens of workers and community members.
Such scenes were once unthinkable in a country where land ownership is an emotive issue with political and racial overtones. “We have come to re- claim our farm,” sang black women and men, rushing into the compound.
Two decades ago, their arrival would have meant that Mr Smart and his family would have to leave. Ruling Zanu-pf party supporters, led by veterans of the Seventies war against white minority rule, evicted many of Zimbabwe’s white farmers under an often violent land reform programme. Whites make up less than one per cent of the southern African country’s population, but they owned huge tracts of land while blacks remained in largely unproductive areas.
The evictions were meant to address colonial land ownership imbalances skewed against blacks. Some in the international community responded with outrage and sanctions. Of the roughly 4,500 white farmers before the land reforms began in 2000, only a few hundred are left. Emmerson Mnangagwa, the newly-elected president, has promised to undo some land reforms as he seeks to revive the onceprosperous economy, and Mr Smart is the first to have his farm returned.