Government ends negotiations with commercial farmers

Relations between the Zimbabwe government and the white-dominated Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) hit a new low on Tuesday, when the authorities banned all further dialogue on the grounds that the union was receiving foreign funding and was no longer a reliable interlocutor but an opposition party. "It's absolutely not true, all our funds are from our members in Zimbabwe," CFU president David Hasluck said on Wednesday in relation to the government's funding allegations. He told IRIN, however, that although the government continued to seek the 4,500-member union's opinion on production matters, all political negotiations had reached an "impasse". "It's tough out on the farms. All I can say to my members is make sure you reap any harvest [this season]. But the government refuses to discuss what happens beyond that," added Hasluck. The government has listed 2,643 commercial farms for resettlement by landless black farmers, which affects 65 percent of the CFU's members, the union said. It has demanded that farmers vacate their properties after the reaping of the latest harvest, without compensation, and despite a Supreme Court decision that the government's "fast-track" land reforms are illegal. "In the face of no compensation the guys are not going to get off," Hasluck said. "There might be increased conflict as there is no lawful way they can be removed." The chair of the government's land acquisition committee and the minister of local government and public works, Ignatius Chombo, said on Tuesday the government would now talk only to individual white farmers interested in giving up their land for redistribution rather than the CFU which it regarded as a political party. Hasluck said that individual members risked being "coerced" by the authorities. Instead, he noted that a CFU special congress due on 21 March would "canvas opinion" to determine whether the leadership was meeting members' expectations.