Farmer returns and is given hero’s welcome in Zimbabwe shake-up
A white Zimbabwean farmer evicted by the government of Robert Mugabe has returned to a hero’s welcome as the first person to get his land back under the new president.
Robert Smart made his way into Lesbury farm, about 124 miles east of the capital Harare, on Thursday with a military escort to cheers and song by dozens of workers and community members.
His return was a sign of reform on an issue that had hastened Zimbabwe’s international isolation.
Such scenes were once unthinkable in a country where land ownership has been an emotional issue with political and racial overtones.
“We have come to reclaim our farm,” sang black women and men, rushing into the compound.
Two decades ago, their arrival would have meant Mr Smart and his family would have to leave. Ruling Zanu-pf party supporters, led by veterans of the 1970s war against white minority rule, evicted many of Zimbabwe’s white farmers under an often violent land reform programme led by Mr Mugabe.
Caucasians make up less than 1 per cent of the southern African country’s population, but they owned huge tracts of land while black people remained in largely unproductive areas. The evictions were meant to address colonial land ownership imbalances skewed against blacks, Mr Mugabe said.
Only a few hundred are left of the roughly 4,500 white farmers before the land reforms started in 2000.
But Mr Mugabe is gone, resigning last month after the military and ruling party turned against him amid fears that his wife was positioning herself to take power.
New president Emmerson Mnangagwa has promised to undo some land reforms as he seeks to revive the once-prosperous economy.
Mr Smart is the first to have his farm returned. War veterans and local traditional leaders joined farm workers and villagers in song to welcome his family home on Thursday.
Mr Smart’s return, facilitated by Mr Mnangagwa’s government, could mark a new turn in the politics of land ownership. During his inauguration last month, Mr Mnangagwa described the land reform as “inevitable,” calling land management the key to economic recovery.
The new president is desperate to bring back foreign investors and resolve a severe currency shortage and mass unemployment.
Zimbabwe is mainly agricultural, with 80 per cent of the population depending on it for their livelihoods.