The Zimbabwe government yesterday ploughed ahead with its "fast track" land redistribution programme by designating another 509, mostly white-owned farms, for seizure.
President Robert Mugabe's plans to confiscate more than half the country's large-scale farms have been criticised by whites and blacks alike as damaging to the already hurt economy.
So far Mr Mugabe's government has identified 1,500 farms for takeover and in the next few weeks it is expected to designate a total of 3,000 farms, representing about 65 per cent of the country's large-scale commercial farms. In addition, more than 1,400 farms are illegally occupied by war veterans and other supporters of Mr Mugabe's party.
In the campaign for the June parliamentary elections, Mr Mugabe repeatedly pledged to give the white-owned farms to the country's impoverished blacks before the rainy season begins in November.
"We will not pay a penny for the soil stolen from the African people by the white colonialists," said Mr Mugabe, although he said some compensation will be paid for improvements such as barns, bridges and dams.
Mr Mugabe's cash-strapped government does not have funds to re-develop the properties for small-scale farming, so thousands of black families will be left to cultivate the properties as best they can.
"The fast track programme will not give our rural people the support they need. It is a fast track to continued rural poverty and the destruction of some of the most economically productive segments of our economy," said Trevor Ncube, editor of the Zimbabwe Independent.
"Our country will suffer for years from the disastrous results of Mr Mugabe's politicking."
The government's plan of rapid land seizures has thrown the agriculture sector into disarray. Commercial banks have refused to loan funds to white farmers because they do not know if the farmers will have title to their properties next year. The lack of finance will close down the mass of Zimbabwe's agricultural production before evictions or resettlements take place.
The land seizures are being carried out amid Zimbabwe's deepening economic crisis. The nation's nine-month-old fuel shortage became even more severe this week with lack of diesel forcing the closure of factories, and riot police being called in to control angry motorists waiting in queues for petrol.