South African President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a speech on August 29 in which he praised Zimbabwe’s bloody policy of “land reform,” which targeted white farmers for murder, displaced one million black farm workers, and led to a famine that starved millions more.
Ramaphosa, who has denied claims of a “genocide” of white farmers in South Africa, made his remarks at the opening of the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show.
The remarks were subsequently published on the website of the South African Presidency, and on YouTube:
On independence in 1980, the new democratic government of Zimbabwe had to take on the momentous task of dismantling colonial-era patterns of land ownership.
Most of the country’s commercially productive land and large-scale commercial farms were owned by whites. The black majority was confined to communal lands and all but completely excluded from commercial farming.
This mirrored our own experience in South Africa.
It was therefore essential – for both historical redress and food security, development and economic growth – that the government embarked on ambitious reforms to facilitate the entry of black Zimbabweans into productive agriculture, including support to small-scale farmers.
Ramaphosa’s potted history attempts to sanitize one of the most atrocious racial injustices of the modern era.
Then-Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe embarked on so-called “land reforms” — not to redress racial imbalances of land ownership, but to shore up his political power after losing a constitutional referendum to expand his executive authority.
Mugabe sent “war veterans” — purported former guerrilla fighters who had served in his militia in its struggle against white rule — to intimidate, and kill, white farmers and black farm workers.
The burning car of slain Zimbabwean farmer Martin Olds is left outside his farm in Namyandlovu some 50 km west Bulawayo 18 April 2000. A group of some 40 armed war veterans attacked Olds farm early this morning killing Martin Olds as he tried to escape his burning farm . (Photo by COSTA MANZINI / AFP) (Photo by COSTA MANZINI/AFP via Getty Images)
Thousands of farms were seized — but few were redistributed to black farmers. Many ended up in the hands of cronies from Mugabe’s ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF).
The ruling party used “land reform” to begin a campaign of political repression, aimed at trade unions and the media, with torture personally supervised by Zanu-PF loyalists such as Chenjerai “Hitler” Hunzvi.
Zimbabwe’s National War Veterans leader Chenjerai “Hitler” Hunzvi is held up by war veterans, before addressing them outside the Zanu PF offices in Harare, Zimbabwe, Saturday, April 29, 2000. At least 27 farm workers were attacked overnight, less than a day after farm leaders and representatives of the armed black squatters reached an agreement that the violence on occupied farms would end. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
The few farms that were operated by black farmers — mostly former farm workers — failed quickly. White farmers fled the country, often finding refuge in other African countries, such as Zambia and Nigeria.
MASHONALAND EAST, ZIMBABWE: Schoolchildren pass the entrance of occupied Devonia farm on their way home from school in a rural area some 40 km east of Harare, 21 June 2000.The farm now used as a headquarters for the war veterans in the area has been renamed “Black power farm” by the squatters after the farmer left. The land issue is being exploited by the ruling Zanu PF party ahead of the 24/25th June parliamentary elections.(ELECTRONIC IMAGE) (Photo credit should read ODD ANDERSEN/AFP via Getty Images)
As a result, commercial agriculture collapsed. Zimbabwe, which had previously exported food to the global market, was forced to import food, and the government soon ran out of foreign currency to purchase imports.
The government began printing money, leading to hyperinflation. Meanwhile, food shortages led to a famine that affected 7 million of Zimbabwe’s twelve million people. One million farm workers were also displaced.
In recent years, the Zimbabwean government has admitted fault — and, in a gesture at reconciliation, and to improve relations with the West, it has actually begun to compensate white farmers for their tragic losses.
That is the “essential” and “ambitious” land reform that Ramaphosa chose to celebrate in Zimbabwe — one that many South Africans fear will happen in their own country, even as Ramaphosa denies it to the world.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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