Responding to President Robert Mugabe\u2019s threats on Wednesday that white farmers should go, Commercial Farmers\u2019 Union (CFU) president Charles Taffs said Zimbabwe was at a crossroads that needed everyone\u2019s effort to bring the country to normalcy.<\/p>\n
Mugabe, who was speaking during the launch of the new A1 permits in Mhangura, said that he will not allow white farmers to own land in Zimbabwe warning his ministers who were protecting them to desist from that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been given a list of 35 white farmers in Mashonaland West alone and in just a few districts that have been audited.<\/p>\n
We say no to whites owning our land and they should go. They can own companies and apartments in our towns and cities, but not the soil. It is ours and that message should ring loud and clear in Britain and the United States,\u201d Mugabe said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, some newly resettled farmers stunned Mugabe on Wednesday when they told him that they preferred to partner whites.<\/p>\n
During his address at Chipfundi in Mhangura, Mugabe asked the crowd if they were willing to work with the whites to which the \u201cYes\u201d answer was more thunderous than the \u201cNo\u201d response.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 35 white commercial famers in Mashonaland West I\u2019m told by your chairman Temba Mliswa … do you want them or not?\u201d asked Mugabe to which there was a thunderous positive response.<\/p>\n
\u201cEheehehe ehe ehe ehe ehe ehe (yes yes yes yes ),\u201d chorused the crowd.<\/p>\n
Sensing that the better part of the crowd wanted to partner whites, Mugabe warned the farmers that whites could not be trusted especially on the land issue.<\/p>\n
But some farmers said the President\u2019s call for his inner circles to shun the whites would fall on deaf ears as most top politicians in the province \u201cdine with whites by night and denounce them by day\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost top politicians in the province work in partnership with the whites and the president has confirmed that but the question is what he is going to do about it. That is the reason why the big politicians always get a bumper harvest,\u201d said an A1 farmer who attended the event…<\/p>\n