adminThe Rhodesia Herald,
November 15, 1965
A CONSERVATIVE peer, Lord Hastings, said in a speech here last night that tobacco sanctions imposed on Rhodesia would lead to “massive unemployment” among Africans in Rhodesia. Lord Hastings lived for six years in Rhodesia and said he still visited his tobacco farm every year.
Referring to the economic sanctions Britain plans to impose on Rhodesia, Lord Hastings said, “The lower the economy runs down, the more miserable will become the condition of the Africans. More certainly will it bring about revolution and bloodshed because there will not be employment for the Africans.”
Of the timing of Mr Ian Smith’s declaration, Lord Hastings said if Mr Smith had waited until Christmas, Farmers in Rhodesia would have had their tobacco planted. As it was, he doubted whether any would now be planted at all, with the exception of irrigation crops.
“The result is going to be a massive laying of labour on the farms. The farmers will survive and that makes one wonder whether the tobacco sanctions are worthwhile,” he said.
Britain, the whites in Rhodesia, the United Nations and the Afro-Asian nations were all equally to blame for the situation in Rhodesia, he added. — Iana-Reuter.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
What was relevant in 1965 remains applicable today. If you want the already marginalised and poverty-stricken people to remain on the fringes of society, the best recipe is imposition of illegal sanctions, while maintaining that they are targeted.
Illegal sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe are not hurting the ruling elite, instead, they have caused serious economic and social ills among the lower classes.
If employment opportunities were subdued more than five decades ago, what is required is a thorough empirical study of how destructive sanctions have been on the majority black population since then.
Whereas Lord Hastings visited his tobacco farm once a year, today, Government is discouraging absentee farmers because the mantra is productivity, productivity, productivity!
When people have land and other support mechanisms that drive agricultural production, that is a good recipe for economic development both at micro and macro levels. Despite the sanctions, people have used the reclaimed land to produce and export to other nations.
Online Reporter