It cannot be disputed that Zimbabwe was once a glorious country under the leadership of President Robert Mugabe. The country was among the giants of development in the world. It has also been a vehicle for development in many developing countries such as South Africa, China, India and developed countries such as Britain, the US, Canada to mention just a few, through the country’s mineral and human resources. Today, Zambia is considered an agricultural country with agricultural products being exported to many parts of the African continent if not the whole world. Yet a decade or so ago Zambia was a struggling importer of agricultural products. Zambia and many other countries relied heavily on Zimbabwe for food and other materials. Zimbabwe unwittingly promoted Zambia to the position of agricultural products exporter when our Zimbabwean white farmers were booted out of the country.
Uganda under Idi Amin expelled all the Asians out of the country. It goes without saying that countries near and around Uganda benefited from the skills of Asians. Like Uganda, Zimbabwe has been struggling for the past decade to feed its ever growing population.
Why should we struggle to feed ourselves when we are a super agricultural country?
Our leaders are too proud to admit failure in their policies towards our commercial farmers. It is true that the indigenous people needed land but did we solve that problem by commercial farm invasions? Many Zimbabweans could have been settled on these farms if the government had done the exercise correctly. However this was not done.
I am not saying that white farmers are better than our black farmers but they were better established and had worked our virgin land into productive farms. Zimbabwean black farmers would have learnt a lot if the white farmers were asked to help them. No one is disputing our need for land distribution but expelling commercial farmers the way we did was like throwing away the baby together with the bath water.
Commercial farmers may not be as vindictive as many people fear. With a genuine accord and a promise of no hindrance, commercial farmers are willing to forgive and begin to develop Zimbabwe to its past glory.
KF Mhlanga Masvingo.
