Zimbabwe CFU Makes Political U-turn

Zimbabwe tobacco farmers harvesting their crops in 2013. The white-dominated Commercial Farmers Union has realized that the MDC-T will not be able to form a government inside the country., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

CFU makes U-turn

Friday, 12 April 2013 00:00
George Chisoko and Elita Chikwati
Zimbabwe Herald

THE Commercial Farmers Union — which has been part of MDC-T’s illegal regime change agenda and a fierce critic of land reform over the past 14 years — is now begging Government to be considered for land, a development analysts say means the group has realised the MDC-T cannot form the next government.

CFU vice president Mr Peter Steyl admitted as much yesterday when he said his organisation ‘‘could not continue swimming against the current”.

He appealed for members of his union to be considered for farming land, insinuating they had been excluded yet the Government is on record encouraging them to apply for consideration like everyone else.

“We have finally realised that the land reform is irreversible,” Mr Steyl said in an interview.
“There has been a change of heart. We have realised that we cannot carry on like this.

“The overall concept is to empower agricultural stakeholders and investors, past and present, in an inclusive way that will bring sustained benefit to all sectors of the Zimbabwean economy.”

The CFU has been flighting adverts in the local press indicating that it now wanted to work with the Government.

Mr Steyl said the union now wanted to work with the Government “in improving the agriculture sector” and was willing to assist with ideas on how best the sector could be revived.

He said CFU was quiet during the first days of land reforms because they were not sure about the programme.

The CFU, which was an exclusive club for white former farmers, poured funds into the MDC hoping the party would unseat Zanu-PF and restore land to white farmers.

MDC-T was on record promising to restore colonial tenure if it assumed power.

Its members were captured on CNN making donations to the party’s leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai at Little England Farm in Banket where the Nicole brothers openly said they were ‘‘investing in the MDC’’.

LAND REFORM AND AGRICULTURE

CFU members fiercely resisted land reform to the extent of engaging in violence that led to some of them being arraigned before the courts.

Mr Steyl said they had now recognised that the majority had benefited from the land and that they could not continue “swimming against the current”.

“We have to resolve the issue and the important thing is to ensure the agriculture sector moves on,” he said.

During the early days of land reform, some white commercial farmers took Government to court after losing the vast tracts of land they held.

“We cannot stop our members from pursuing individual cases in courts,” Mr Steyl said.
“Some CFU members approached the regional courts in Namibia, while the Dutch farmers approached their court.”

In 2000, CFU withdrew its offer of 180 farms for resettlement in protest against the compulsory acquisition of farms by the Government.

That same year, the then CFU president Mr Tim Henwood relaunched an application at the High Court contesting the compulsory acquisition of land for resettlement.
An agriculture expert yesterday said CFU has made a U-turn after realising that it had become irrelevant.

“They are seeking relevance. They have been thrown in the political and economic wilderness and made irrelevant in the country’s production matrix. CFU has realised that the whole structure they depended on failed to get into power and now they are shifting their allegiance to support the policies of Zanu-PF. It’s a pity they are talking of moving the agriculture sector forward as if the sector is stagnant.

“They took a back seat thinking production would crumble yet the opposite is true. They unfortunately talk of wanting to revive the agriculture sector as if it has collapsed when we all know that it is vibrant and rebounding”.
The expert said the CFU had simply realised that “its party of choice” may never get into power and would rather support the policies of a progressive party.

“Look at our tobacco production. There has been a steady rise from less than 100 million kg when we took back our land to 144 million last season and I see the crop rebounding to 200 million this season.”

Several recent surveys have pointed to a Zanu-PF victory in the harmonised elections set to be held by June 29 amid indications the MDC-T’s western constituency has realised the party had no capacity to unseat Zanu-PF.

Analysts say this realisation accounts for the recent move by the British government to re-engagement Zanu-PF, and accounts for the CFU’s campaign to work with Government.
The analysts say the CFU wouldn’t have made the overtures it is making if it believed the MDC-T would win the harmonised elections as it would have waited for returns made on its investment into the MDC-T.