Since entering office in 1980 when fighting for Zimbabwe independence, President Robert Mugabe has sent the once prosperous African nation into an economic and societal downfall. Stemming from his Marxist teachings, his thirst for power and his hatred for Caucasians, Mugabe has established a toxic place where Zimbabweans call themselves “starving billionaires.”
One policy that has led to the economic collapse in Zimbabwe is the prohibition of whites owning land. More than a decade ago, Mugabe required that land must be majority-owned by blacks – it used to be businesses, too, a couple of years ago until Mugabe was forced to modify the policy. Now it has be fully owned by blacks.
Speaking at a rally late last week, Mugabe is now demanding whites to completely leave the country, which has led to intense animosity between whites and blacks as his supporters have carried out the orders of his ruling Zanu-PF.
“We say no to whites owning our land and they should go. Don’t be too kind to white farmers. Land is yours, not theirs. They should get into industries and leave the land to blacks,” said Mugabe, who has been accused of further inciting racial tensions.
According to Commercial Farmers Union director Hendricks Olivier, there are only between 100 and 150 white farmers left in Harare. Due to the land reform initiatives put forward by the government, several thousand white farmers fled the country and immigrated to neighboring nations or left the continent entirely.
Analysts say that Mugabe is attempting to deflect from his horrendous record of high unemployment, the shutting down of businesses and the financial crisis created by his hyper-inflation monetary policies and damaging economic platforms.
Critics of President Mugabe present the case that companies and farm land are being operated by individuals that have very little understanding of how a business works or how a farm grows crops. This has led to widespread food shortages and intense poverty, a shocking turn of events considering that Zimbabwe was one of the leading agricultural hubs in the world prior to Mugabe’s reign.
As Robert Wenzel wrote in the Economic Policy Journal:
“Now this is what racism really looks like. Government edicts taking private property from a race and preventing ownership, or even rental, of land by a given race.”
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