Posted on 05/19/2005 4:24:48 AM PDT by Clive
HARARE - The Zimbabwe government is planning to offer former white farms for free to Chinese state-owned firms in a desperate bid to revive the key agricultural sector, ZimOnline has learnt.
Details of the planned land-for-investment scheme are still sketchy. But sources said Harare, vigorously pursuing a new "look-East" policy after falling out with the West because of its poor human rights record, was looking for a government to government deal.
Officials of state-owned agro-firm, China State Farms Agribusiness Corporation (CSFAC), were expected in Harare "soon" for talks with government officials on the modalities of the proposed farming partnership, according to the sources.
"Details of the deal are not yet clear as the actual talks are yet to be done. But both Zimbabwe and China seem keen to embark on the deal. The government is desperate to have agriculture back on the tracks," said the source, who spoke on condition he was not named.
Intelligence Minister Dydmus Mutasa, ordered by President Robert Mugabe last week to also oversee land reform, has been tasked to repossess all underutilised land and hand it over to the Chinese once the deal is in place.
The government is targeting unproductive land owned by blacks apparently because there was no longer enough land in white hands, after close to 90 percent of the former white commercial farmers were stripped off land under the government's chaotic and often violent land reforms.
"There is no longer enough land to grab from white farmers. So what will happen is that Mutasa will have to find land from blacks who are seen to have failed to productively farm. This is the land that will be given to the Chinese," the source said.
Mutasa refused to take questions on the matter accusing ZimOnline of seeking to upset relations the government was trying to build with the Chinese.
"You seem bent on destroying whatever good the government is doing. You don't want us to build any relations," Mutasa fumed.
It was also not possible to get comment from the Chinese embassy in Harare.
This is not the first time that the government has attempted to give land taken from white Zimbabwean farmers to foreigners.
At the height of fuel shortages three years ago, the government signed a similar deal with Libya under which Tripoli was to take large swathes of land in exchange for fuel. The deal collapsed as the Libyans preferred cash at that time.
Apart from seeking help from the Chinese, the government is also secretly approaching some of the expelled white farmers enticing them to return to the land with promises of compensation for equipment lost during the farm seizures and security from evictions in future.
Zimbabwe has since 2002 virtually survived on food handouts from international donors because of severe food shortages after a 60 percent drop in food production because black families resettled by the government on former white-owned farms lack skills and resources. - ZimOnline
This begins the settlement of Africa by the Chinese. From Sudan to South Africa, the Chinese are moving in, and they won't be moving out. In 100 years, there will be more Chinese than Africans in Africa.
I've heard it said that the return of Colonialism would be the only thing to save and right Africa. The West of course is too guilt ridden to do such a thing.
It looks like China may be the willing Colonial power.
This is a move that totally surprised me.
I remember as a teenager reading a quote in a book somewhere that Brezhnev's intent was to cut America off from 'the two great treasure houses of the West; the treasure houst that is oil in the Middle East and the treasure house that is minerals in Southern Africa"? I've been looking unsuccessfully for that quote upon occasion for quite some time, for it shows the strategic nature of the coordinated attack upon America, including our own environmentalists.
Beer and those other food/beverage products were freshness counts & which are sensitive shipping conditions like temperature are different. Distant countries & workers can't always deliver a cheaper product. But when it comes to the bulk of department store items - like cloths, electronics etc. - we may be able to make it better BUT not cheaper. Unless today's Americans are ready to pay more for American goods - as they did in the fifties, sixties & seventies - our future will continue to be mortgaged to foreignors.
Unless today's Americans are ready to pay more for American MADE* goods - as they did in the fifties, sixties & seventies - our future will continue to be mortgaged to foreignors.
[*... not products made abroad for "American" companies. ]
That is the truth. I have been saying for months that China's goal is no less than the colonization of Africa, in the real sense of the term. They have found a real patsy in mugabe and they are going to capitalize on it. The bottom line is Africa needs to be re-invaded and have minimum standards of law forced upon it. If the west won't do it, the Chinese will. No matter how you slice it, Blacks lose. What a tragedy.
The other part of the equation is, when the Chinese colonize Africa formally, the only way to dislodge them will be a WW. If the present Africans think the west is racist, they ain't seen nothing yet. By comparison, the west is all super bleeding hearts compared to the Chinese. It will happen in about twenty years. You can bet on it.
Answer: About a week before the entire PLA swarms in there, destroys the existing government and declares that Zimbabwe is a protectorate of Beijing.
Carolyn
Quote: And once the farms are back up and running how long
before the dictator takes them back..?
The chinese are not like the west. They will not let that happen...ever. We are way to lenient on countries.
Given that the policies of the glorious People's Republic resulted in the starvation of 35 million Chinese in the 60's this oughta be a great deal for Zimbabwe.
Quote: The other part of the equation is, when the Chinese colonize Africa formally, the only way to dislodge them will be a WW
The largest immigration into Africa over the last few years has been by orientals . Mostly chinese and koreans. One of my Mustang buddies in South Africa says his neighborhood is starting to look like "little China'
And you are right the chinese will be ruthless upon the african peoples.
U.S. Watches As China Woos Caribbean
Note that China has "opened a $114 million container port in Freeport", Bahamas. Freeport is 56 miles from the US. Someone should ask Senator Chuckie Cheese Schumer, how billions of dollars in U.S. port security can safeguard us from nuclear devices in China's container port in Freeport.
Good Lord!
I don't think that will happen. More likely, Mugabe is getting a flow of cash into his bank accounts to shut up and allow the Chinese to flood the country with people.
What the blacks of Zimbabwe will discover once there is a critical mass of Chinese there, is that the Chinese want the mines, but do not need black workers. They have enough peasant workers they can ship over to reduce overcrowding in China. The blacks of Zimbabwe will get the same treatment the Indians got in the US: get out of the way or be exterminated
If the true Darwinian Principle were followed, all of this would be but imaginative nonsense.
Interesting article.
You said it. I married into an Asian family. I don't think I can tell you how racist they are.
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