adminhundreds of thousands of hitherto landless Zimbabwean families.
What is surprising though is the fact that the CFU waited for 14 years to finally realise the seriousness of the land revolution and that the MDC-T, which had promised to reverse the programme should it assume power, would never win an election against Zanu-PF.
We will not bother ourselves about the CFU’s U-turn because it is not the big story. The CFU has done what any right-thinking person would have done, embrace land reform and not fight it.
What really got us thinking are some issues the CFU raised in the reports carried last week, where it insinuated it needed to be considered for land to revive the agriculture industry and ensure productivity on the farms.
If the CFU has made a U-turn because of the warped view there cannot be agriculture without them, then obviously we do not think Zimbabweans share that view.
We know that the consistent prayers of white former farmers was to see crop production collapsing and thus justify why they needed to be kept on the land.
This has not happened.
Indeed during any transitional phase, production suffers as the people settle on the farm, putting up structures and mobilising farming inputs.
There is no doubt that the production of crops like maize and tobacco, initially tumbled, but the volumes have started rising, with tobacco performing very well that projections now point to a crop size of 200 million kg this season from as low as less than 100 million kg when we took back the land from those that had been holding it for us.
So for anyone to talk about wanting to be re-considered for land to help revive the industry is really disturbing.
There is no industry that needs the CFU to revive as indigenous farmers have proved beyond any reasonable doubt that they are capable of producing and feeding the nation and even export the surplus.
The white former farmers were never denied any land at the height of land reforms.
We remember vividly the then Minister of Agriculture, Lands and Land Reform Dr Joseph Made, encouraging the white former farmers to apply for land alongside indigenous Zimbabweans.
They were afforded a chance to be resettled just like everyone else but they spurned the opportunity in the mistaken hope that there would be regime change and a restoration of the colonial status quo. They simply did not want share the land with anyone but wanted to cling on to the vast tracts of land.
The question that begs an answer is why is the CFU begging to be re-considered for land when the chance for them to remain on the land was extended to them?
Our advise to the CFU is that it must just come clean and admit its support for the MDC-T and the promises the party made.
The CFU must simply admit it has realised the MDC-T may never get into power and that promises to return land to white former farmers will remain promises.
It cannot be argued that there is a lot of money to be made on the land and this explains why the CFU is now desperate for its members to be re-considered for land so that they can make money and their begging for land does not suddenly transform into patriotism. True to the old adage, ‘if you can’t beat them, join them”, is what the CFU has done but it should not hide behind the national interest, which we know they cannot suddenly have.
The land reform train has not stopped moving because white formers, as represented by the CFU have been left behind and those that failed to board it have no one to blame but themselves.
The CFU did not board the land reform train for political reasons as it had pledged its support for the MDC-T, a known opponent of land reform and any other people- cantered programmes.
Taking into account the progress our farmers have made on the farms, without the kind of support extended to white former farmers, we are convinced it is a matter of time before we become self-sufficient and have surplus for export. If the Government decides to consider the white former farmers for land, then they must queue just like everyone else.
They must not be given any special treatment and no indigenous farmer should be moved off the land to resettle white former farmers.
Online Reporter