Black farmers prove critics wrong: Mugabe
18/06/2011 00:00:00
by Gilbert Nyambabvu
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe says the country’s economic recovery – driven
largely by agriculture and mining — has helped prove wrong the perception
that black farmers are not as productive as white counterparts.
Zimbabwe’s agriculture-based economy hit the skids over the last decade with
critics blaming Mugabe’s seizure of white-owned farms which they say
resulted in a catastrophic collapse in agricultural productivity.
The government counters that sanctions imposed by the West as punishment for
the land seizures caused the economic hardships.
The economic decline was reversed in 2009 however, with the country
recording positive growth since, largely driven by the recovery in
agriculture.
“They (blacks) are the main players in agriculture. That means, we are as
productive as them (white commercial farmers), whether big or small
farmers,” Mugabe said on arrival at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International
Airport (KLIA) on Saturday.
The Zimbabwean leader is in Malaysia to attend the three-day Lankawi
International Dialogue series which seeks to enhance “smart partnerships”
between governments and the private sector in promoting development.
Mugabe said the government has focused on increasing production of food
crops as well as tobacco, once a major export for the country.
In 2010 tobacco deliveries to the auction floors topped 122 million kgs
after collapsing to less than 50 million kgs in the last decade.
Officials say the country is now on course to hit the 200 million kgs
achieved during peak production periods before implementation of the land
reforms.
Meanwhile, Mugabe also dismissed claims that key regime figures had largely
benefitted from the land reforms instead of the country’s previously
landless majority.
“How can land just go to Mugabe’s friends and relatives? My friends are my
people and those are the people who fought with us to drive out the
British… therefore, the beneficiaries,” he said.
“Anyway, the land belonged to the people…we have a customary system of
chiefs in various areas, and chiefs being custodians of lands in various
areas on behalf of the people. We have maintained that all land is state
land.”
He also said the mining sector had helped reboot the economy but emphasised
the need to invest in value edition.
“Thank, God… this shows the British that we have other minerals like
diamonds, platinum and uranium…perhaps, we continue to discover more and
these had helped (the economic growth),” he added.