My Mugabe experience

SIR: I enjoyed reading Algy Cluff’s article on Mugabe turning nasty (January issue) but I would make a few corrections. For a start, he was always nasty! Secondly, the British did contribute some money towards purchasing white-owned farms immediately after independence, and some were bought near my farm. I was leasing one of them and assumed that I would have to leave as soon as it was sold, so that the poor, deprived, landhungry masses could have some of the ‘best land’. The seller was paid but no one came to take over the farm, and I continued to use it – free – for a further four years until it was occupied by one of Mugabe’s ministers.

In 2000, when Mugabe lost a referendum and was likely to lose the following general election, he decided to kick all the white farmers off the land because they were too well-respected by the black farmers and were also doing a great deal to assist any of them who had their own land. These people would definitely not have voted for Mugabe ever again; so had to be dispersed away from the ‘evil’ influence of said white farmers.

So the countrywide land invasions of the early 2000s achieved the joint goals of getting rid of the wicked whites and ensuring that their employees would vote for the ruling party. The fact that this exercise totally ruined the entire economy of the country was immaterial to Mugabe, who was only interested in staying in power. Mark Milbank, Buckland Newton, Dorset