Tuesday, June 8, 2004

'Communist' Zimbabwe Steals All Farmland

Genocidal left-wing dictator Robert Mugabe, who has already turned Zimbabwe from a breadbasket to a basket case, announced today that he was taking all remaining farmland he hasn't already stolen.

"There shall be no such thing as private land," decreed John Nkomo, minnister of "land reform," who apparently never heard about similar catastrophic "reforms" imposed by the Soviet Union, Cambodia, Cuba and other communist dictatorships.

The regime will not "waste time and money" in disputes on seizures of farms whose owners hold deeds and other legal documents, Nkomo said. "Ultimately all land shall be resettled as state property."

Even black families who in recent years were handed once-successful farms stolen from murdered whites will lose "their" land.

John Robertson, an economist in Harare, rejected the dictatorship's claim that leases doled out and sold by the regime would serve as collateral for farmers to obtain supplies.


"The banks aren't going to lend to an individual against a lease that belongs to the state. It doesn't work that way. You can't borrow on the strength of something you don't own," he said.

"It is a very big step away from a market economy to the communist-style command economy of state control of the factors of production."

The Stalinesque Mugable once admitted planning to starve millions of those opposing his dictatorship. Stealing every farm in the nation will be a huge boost to that scheme.

Here's a link to a CNN Article on the subject. Incredible...



-Steve

And to add to the misery, I would bet dollars to donuts that Tanzania will jump on this breadbasket and prices will zoom, once the Zim gov. screws up all hunting and thats just exactly what is happening...

Zim will most likely survive, but I see some really rough roads ahead, much like Mozambique..Is civil war in the future, I don't know, but it sure wouldn't surprise me because when folks get hungry, they get mean..Thats the African story going back a million years.

Just an opinnion, I have nothing to back up such statements except a life time of dealing in those countries so call it a educated guess, that could be wrong for sure...

The farms are mostly mortgaged to various banks, so he is really screwing up the banking system (and the bank's shareholders) at the same time. I hear the value of the mortgages that will have to be written off is around 7% of GDP.

No private ownership means nobody to maintain or care for anything. That means no game left on private property, none. Possibly the reserves and the govt concessions will survive.

I thought I read a few months ago ,that Mugabe was going to stand down soon. Was that just an empty promise ,or whats the latest news there? I wanted to hunt in Zimbabwe next year due to more competitive prices, but it looks like things are not going to improve for a while.

I have not found the price structure that much different when one counts all the little hidden costs in Zimbabwe..