Zim wildlife ranchers get new partners
http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/

Eyewitness News | 8 Hours Ago

Wildlife ranchers in southern Zimbabwe say new partners are being forced
upon them by Zanu-PF ministers.

They believe it is part of a new phase in Zimbabwe's nine-year-old land
reform programme - this time without the militias.

Sources, who were told to attend a wildlife land reform meeting in southern
Zimbabwe last week, say this is not a normal land takeover.

Zanu-PF officials at the meeting were friendly and jovial.

They made it clear conservancy owners, many of them in the safe area of
south-eastern Zimbabwe, must take on new indigenous partners who have been
allotted to them.

New partners were made to sign 25-year leases at the end of the meeting.

Zanu-PF officials said this was a necessary part of land reform but
conservancy owners were worried.

They say there is no respect for foreign shareholder or properties supposed
to be protected under bilateral investment agreements.

They say this will scare away foreign investors when Zimbabwe so desperately
needs them.

And I am sure that these new "partners" were required to pay their fair share to the landowner for their new ownership interests. You are going to do it whether you like it or not. Does it sound familiar?