Zim opposition says will not reverse land grabs

JOHANNESBURG – Zimbabwe’s main opposition party has stressed that if it comes to power it will not return land to evicted white farmers, although it will not endorse the controversial land reforms backed by President Robert Mugabe.

Seizures of white-owned commercial farmland for redistribution to landless blacks – which began in 2000 – have been blamed for helping to plunge Zimbabwe into its worst economic and political crisis since independence in 1980. “We cannot go back to the pre-2000 situation in which Mr.Joe Bloke who has now run away, is in Australia, we say come and get back your land,” Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change, told South Africa’s Sunday Independent.”We cannot go back to that,” he added.Mugabe and the ruling Zanu-PF party backed the land invasions, saying it was wrong for most of the country’s commercial farms to be owned by whites.Critics say the redistribution of white-owned farms has favoured top Zanu-PF members and government officials, and worsened severe food shortages caused by a regional drought.Tsvangirai said land reform without food security was not appropriate and the MDC would not endorse Mugabe’s policies on the issue.”The land-grabbing exercise that Mugabe has embarked on has led this country to a serious food deficit…we cannot reverse what has been done, but we cannot endorse what has been done,” Tsvangirai said.”…As the MDC we think the method was wrong, the objectives might be right…what we want as MDC is to rationalise the reform programme so that it becomes equitable, transparent and deals with this historical grievance,” he added.Tsvangirai was repeating a policy spelled out in the MDC’s economic revival plan last January, which said there was “no possibility” of the status quo being restored on land, although the fast-track land grab would not be maintained.Zimbabwe is battling with record inflation, unemployment and chronic shortages of foreign currency and fuel.Western donors have cut off support because of Mugabe’s controversial policies.Tsvangirai – who is awaiting judgement on charges of plotting to kill Mugabe – said if the MDC was in power it would carry out audits to find out who owned farms and set up a commission to redistribute land and help farmers.Mugabe said in remarks published in the state-owned Herald newspaper on Saturday that the MDC would disappear from the political landscape after next year’s general election.The MDC denied it was on the verge of collapse, saying it would give Zanu-PF – which has been in power since independence in 1980 – a stiff contest if elections were free and fair.In parliamentary elections in 2000, the MDC won nearly half the 120 contested parliamentary seats, denying Zanu-PF the two-thirds majority it needs to carry out constitutional changes.- Nampa-Reuters”We cannot go back to the pre-2000 situation in which Mr.Joe Bloke who has now run away, is in Australia, we say come and get back your land,” Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change, told South Africa’s Sunday Independent.”We cannot go back to that,” he added.Mugabe and the ruling Zanu-PF party backed the land invasions, saying it was wrong for most of the country’s commercial farms to be owned by whites.Critics say the redistribution of white-owned farms has favoured top Zanu-PF members and government officials, and worsened severe food shortages caused by a regional drought.Tsvangirai said land reform without food security was not appropriate and the MDC would not endorse Mugabe’s policies on the issue.”The land-grabbing exercise that Mugabe has embarked on has led this country to a serious food deficit…we cannot reverse what has been done, but we cannot endorse what has been done,” Tsvangirai said.”…As the MDC we think the method was wrong, the objectives might be right…what we want as MDC is to rationalise the reform programme so that it becomes equitable, transparent and deals with this historical grievance,” he added.Tsvangirai was repeating a policy spelled out in the MDC’s economic revival plan last January, which said there was “no possibility” of the status quo being restored on land, although the fast-track land grab would not be maintained.Zimbabwe is battling with record inflation, unemployment and chronic shortages of foreign currency and fuel.Western donors have cut off support because of Mugabe’s controversial policies.Tsvangirai – who is awaiting judgement on charges of plotting to kill Mugabe – said if the MDC was in power it would carry out audits to find out who owned farms and set up a commission to redistribute land and help farmers.Mugabe said in remarks published in the state-owned Herald newspaper on Saturday that the MDC would disappear from the political landscape after next year’s general election.The MDC denied it was on the verge of collapse, saying it would give Zanu-PF – which has been in power since independence in 1980 – a stiff contest if elections were free and fair.In parliamentary elections in 2000, the MDC won nearly half the 120 contested parliamentary seats, denying Zanu-PF the two-thirds majority it needs to carry out constitutional changes.- Nampa-Reuters