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Zimbabwean Govt., White Farmers Urged to Reach Compromise
The Zimbabwean government and white commercial farmers have to strike a compromise between partisan politics and court actions to solve problems besieging the land reform program, a senior official of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) said Friday night.
Both parties have to engage in serious and frank dialogue, as the quest for 5 million hectares for land reform is a worth cause and the only way towards solving the current land imbalance, said UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown while visiting here.
He said there is need to break the polarization between parties involved in the land reform process and this can be achieved through a systematic, fact-based information gathering and dissemination approach to quash any rumors and distortions.
Brown said he will soon be sending proposals on the way forward to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, whom he met on Friday in what he described as a frank and revealing discussion at the State House in Harare.
Unresolved, the land issue will remain a "dark shadow" which will derail and retard the country's development, he said.
Brown, also U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anan's special envoy, visited the country following a technical team that compiled a report on the land situation in the country. The UNDP has been tasked to find an entry point for donor support.
His visit came at a time when there was growing mistrust between the Zimbabwean government, commercial farmers and donor community. The government has been accusing the donor community of perpetually shifting the goal posts by coming up with new conditions, while the donors argued that the government is failing to uphold the rule of law and carrying out the program in a transparent manner.
"I found a consensus in all quarters that land reform in Zimbabwe is a pressing social and economic priority for the government of Zimbabwe, all its people, the Southern Africa region, and the wider international community," Brown said.
"In order for a 5 million hectare program to be implemented in a way that can secure external financial support, it is critical that there be a meeting of the minds between the international donors, the Zimbabwean government and domestic stakeholders on the implementation principles," he said at the end of his visit.
On his side, Mugabe told Brown that his government is looking for an amicable solution by offering the settlers alternative land, but its efforts are being hampered by unnecessary court actions being brought about by the White Commercial Farmers' Union.
Later at a press briefing, Brown acknowledged that the solution to the present crisis does not lie with the courts but a common understanding.
Brown is expected to leave for Nairobi, capital of Kenya, on Saturday.
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