Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has called on the country’s remaining white farmers to cede land to black people.<\/p>\n
“We say no to whites owning our land and they should go,” Mr Mugabe told his supporters at a rally.<\/p>\n
The white farmers union said it was regrettable that racial tensions were flaring up again.<\/p>\n
The president’s critics say his policy of seizing most of Zimbabwe’s white-owned farms caused the country’s economic collapse from 2000-2009.<\/p>\n
Mr Mugabe, 90, has governed Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.<\/p>\n
He was re-elected president last year with 61% of the vote, defeating his long-standing rival Morgan Tsvangirai.<\/p>\n
The president’s Zanu-PF party also gained a parliamentary majority of more than two-thirds, winning 160 of the 210 seats.<\/p>\n
BBC Zimbabwe analyst Stanley Kwenda says Mr Mugabe’s comments are surprising, as the government officially ended its land reform programme about two years ago.<\/p>\n
It appears that Mr Mugabe wants to deflect attention from Zimbabwe’s economic crisis, especially worsening unemployment and the closure of firms, our correspondent says.<\/p>\n
‘Anxiety’<\/p>\n
“Don’t be too kind to white farmers. Land is yours, not theirs,” Mr Mugabe said at a rally in Mashonaland West province, a stronghold of Zanu-PF .<\/p>\n
“They should get into industries and leave the land to blacks,” he added.<\/p>\n
Mr Mugabe’s comments had caused anxiety among white farmers, said Commercial Farmers Union director Hendricks Olivier.<\/p>\n
“We’d like to move forward and work with the government of the day,” he told BBC Focus on Africa.<\/p>\n
There were only between 100 and 150 white farmers left in Zimbabwe, Mr Olivier said.<\/p>\n
Several thousand of them were forced to abandon farming after the government launched a controversial land reform programme nearly 15 years ago.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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