Socialism fails in Zimbabwe

From each according to his ability.  To each according to his needs.
Marxists will never learn. 

• Food production dropped 70% in former British colony
• President Robert Mugabe's family now controls 39 seized farms

The Marxist policy of the re-distribution of wealth has failed in every nation it has ever been tried in.  Seeing the failure first hand, Communists from Romania to Russia to China have adopted forms of capitalism.  But that does not stop the Socialist dictators of the world from trying it again and again with the same results. 

Zimbabwe's policy of seizing white-owned farms and handing them over to black workers has cost the country £7billion in lost production over the past decade, it has been claimed.

The extent of the agricultural collapse in the former British colony - once famed as the 'bread-basket of Africa' - emerged hours after the UN said it needs half a billion dollars in humanitarian aid this year, reports the UK Mail.

Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, and his family now own 39 farms which had been seized from their white former owners, said the Commercial Farmers' Union in Harare, the country's capital.

Hundreds more have been 'stolen' from experienced white farmers and given to black workers and veterans of the war of independence - many of whom have little knowledge of farming.

Union chief Deon Theron said food production had slumped by 70 per cent in Zimbabwe since President Mugabe began his policy of seizing white-owned farms in 2000.
Mr Theron blamed the land seizures for food shortages and the collapse of Zimbabwe's economy over the past decade, saying it had destroyed the country's tax base.


Displaced: This 2002 photo shows a group of Zimbabwe white commercial farmers having their group photograph taken at the Mutorashanga Country Club, before meeting a government deadline to vacate their farms


'If the aim of the land reform was to evict whites and replace them with blacks, then it can be deemed a success,' Mr Theron said.

Zimbabwe used to produce enough to feed itself and even to export but this was no longer the case, according to Mr Theron.

He estimated that production of maize, a staple food largely grown by small-scale black farmers - the people supposed to gain most from land reform - is this year estimated to be just 50 per cent of 2000 levels.

Cotton, seen as a cash crop for small-scale farmers, has fallen by 45 per cent, said Mr Theron, while tobacco, one of the country's main export earners and previously dominated by large-scale white farmers, has declined by 50 percent.

Wheat, beef and dairy production had effectively collapsed, he added.

Mr Theron said land had become a tool for dispensing political patronage and named five other close allies of Mr Mugabe whose families have taken control of at least five farms each.

After years of economic meltdown, Zimbabwe abandoned its currency in 2009 and now uses the US and South African money.

Breadbasket to Basketcase

• Maize - 2000: 2m tons; ---------------------  2010: 819,000
• Tobacco - 2000: 244,000 tons; -------------  2010: 123,000
• Cotton - 2000: 353,000 tons; ---------------  2010: 200,000
• Groundnuts - 2000: 191,000 tons; ---------- 2010: 51,000
• Sugar - 2000: 538,000 tons; ----------------  2010: 300,000
• Dairy - 2000: 187,000 tons; ----------------  2010: 31,000
• Beef - 2000: 605,000 animals slaughtered; ----   2010: 230,000

Source: CFU

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