Fund Zanu-PF or lose land, white farmers told
2013-06-20 13:04
Cape Town – Zimbabwe’s broke Zanu-PF has extended a begging bowl to white
commercial farmers who survived the country’s chaotic land reform, ahead of
elections expected this year, a report said on Thursday.
According to News Day, Manicaland province governor Christopher Mushohwe is
reportedly said to have held a meeting with white commercial famers on
behalf of Zanu-PF and asked them to fund the party’s election campaign,
failure of which they would lose their land.
A source who attended the meeting said Mushohwe told the farmers that they
still held their land courtesy of his party and could risk losing their
farms if they did not fund the Zanu-PF election campaign.
“He told us that we needed the support of Zanu-PF to keep our land and if we
fail to co-operate with funding the election campaign, we could be
considered enemies to the party and could lose the farms we were allowed to
keep when other farmers were hounded out,” said the source, who declined to
be named.
A recent report said Zanu-PF was broke and that it was not ready for
elections despite the party pushing for an early vote.
Internal sources revealed that “its [Zanu-PF] financial woes worsened at
the beginning of the year after top Zanu-PF members who were bankrolling the
party withdrew their financial support after it emerged they were being
targeted for investigation over the source of their wealth”.
Party leaders however, have maintained the party is ready for the elections.