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Zimbabwean Minister Says White Farmers Refuse to Talk With Govt
Zimbabwean Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa Thursday dismissed reports that he refused to cooperate with the commercial farmers during talks to initiate dialogue between the two sides on land reform.
Chinamasa said in a statement that the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) representatives had refused to continue with the talks when he told them the government needed them to offer 8.3 million hectares of land on an uncontested basis.
"The CFU representatives felt that they could make no further concessions save for what had already been offered under the Zimbabwe Joint Resettlement Initiative, that is the 1 million hectares," the minister said.
He said he was disappointed that "they were taking that attitude.""When we concluded the meeting, the understanding was that they would go and consult their membership and report back."
Chinamasa said the government was willing to engage the CFU in any negotiations to implement the Abuja agreement and move the land reform forward.
The Abuja agreement was signed early this month to give Zimbabwe conditions for the support of the land reform program by Britain and other donors.
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