Zimbabwean Investors Not Bring Land Problems to Mozambique: President

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 19, 2002

Zimbabwean Investors Not Bring Land Problems to Mozambique: President

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano has denied that the Zimbabwean commercial farmers who are working in central Mozambique will bring with them the land problems that have plagued Zimbabwean politics.

Speaking Monday in Harare to Mozambican Television (TVM), Chissano distinguished sharply between the land situation in Mozambique, where all land is state property, and that in Zimbabwe, where it is mostly in private hands.

"The conditions don't exist here for the same thing that happened in Zimbabwe," Chissano said, noting: "In Mozambique, the land belongs to the state. It will never be the private property of the white farmers. The legislation is clear".

The Zimbabwean farmers in Mozambique were leasing the land for a period of up to 50 years, and when that period ran out they would have to apply to renew the lease. And should the farmers not undertake the investment promised "the legal clauses are clear, and they will lose the land, and the state does not have to pay them any compensation", Chissano explained.

Furthermore, the opportunity to farm in Mozambique was not restricted to white Zimbabweans. If any black Zimbabweans had money to invest in Mozambique, they were welcome too, he said.

"There's nothing to stop them," he added. "This has nothing to do with the land crisis in Zimbabwe. It has to do with our opening to foreign investment."

As for the controversial Zimbabwean presidential election, won by incumbent President Robert Mugabe, Chissano repeated his belief that the election had been free and fair, and said that "Europe and America do not know Africa well".

Chissano said that the anomalies and "the few scenes of violence" that preceded the elections had no impact on the outcome.

Countries that advocated punitive measures against Mugabe's government did so because they were unaware of the realities of Zimbabwean, and indeed of Africa, he argued.

The Mozambican leader said he had followed the Zimbabwean crisis over a period of years. "One cannot assess these elections just through an observation of a few weeks or even months," he said.

"One must take into account a whole series of factors, and we think there was a great opening for a democratic process such as this, which allowed real participation of all forces. We think we should encourage democracy instead of discouraging it," he stressed.

Chissano denied that the Zimbabwean crisis would open a damaging political breach between Africa and Europe. What was happening, he said, was merely a difference of opinion arising from different analyses of the Zimbabwean problem.

He also argued that Africa should be given time to improve its nascent democratic systems. "If Africa is to have mature democracies, then it must be given time, and above all support, otherwise everything, including the continent's embryonic democracies, will collapse under such basic problems as lack of food, drinking water, medical care and schools," he said.

As for Zimbabwe's relations with the Commonwealth, Chissano stressed his opposition to any suspension of Zimbabwe's membership. It was better to discuss the problems "with Zimbabwe inside the Commonwealth rather than outside".

"I think the isolation of Zimbabwe will serve no purpose," he said.

Questions?Comments? Click here

Analysis: Mugabe Entrusted to Pioneer White-Owned Land Redistribution

Fake Observers, Polling Agents Arrested in Zimbabwe