White farmers begin returning to Zimbabwe

Scores of white commercial farmers who left Zimbabwe after their farms were seized as part of President Robert Mugabe's land reform policies are returning home as the promise of greener pastures elsewhere in southern Africa fails to materialise.

17 Jul 2007

Harare - Justice for Agriculture (JAG), an independent organisation established to support about 4,000 farmers left landless after implementation of the 2000 fast-track land-reform programme to redistribute land to blacks, said about 100 farmers who had left to settle in other countries in the region had returned to Zimbabwe.

"It never rains but pours for the commercial farmers. Following numerous constraints that almost turned them into paupers in countries like Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi, the farmers decided to come back, and more could be returning," JAG chairman John Worswick told IRIN. It is not known how many farmers left the country as a result of the land-reform process.

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