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At least 15,000 Zimbabwe black farm labourers and their families have lost their jobs and homes since the government started to resettle blacks on white-owned land three weeks ago, a union leader said on Monday.
“At least 15,000 people have been displaced by the fast track land redistribution programme in Mashonaland West and Central provinces,” said Phillip Munyanyi, general secretary of the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ).
Munyanyi said resettlement officially started about three weeks ago, although it had been ongoing on a low-key since June and some 1,884 black families had been resettled on 800,000 hectares of land up to 11 August. He said out of an average of 300 employees per white farm, only three or five workers are being given land.
Munyanyi added that as many of the employees have families to support, each time a farm is taken an average of 600 people lose their homes.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions