Zimbabwe farmers meet govt after land grab report

HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- Zimbabwe's white farmers will meet President Robert Mugabe's government on Monday after state television announced a dramatic expansion of the plan to seize farms for resettling landless blacks.

The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), which at the weekend said it would join this week's opposition-backed general strike, had scheduled the meeting before ZTV announced on Sunday that 3,000 farms would be acquired to settle thousands of people.

In May, the government had said it had earmarked 804 farms for seizure with a final plan to acquire five million hectares of the 12 million hectares owned by white farmers in the southern African country.

Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo on Monday declined to comment on the increased number of targeted farms, but said details would be released later in the week.

"The numbers are not important. What is important is that we are accelerating the resettlement programme and that we are involving all stakeholders in the process," he told Reuters.

The state-owned Herald newspaper on Monday quoted presidential spokesman George Charamba as saying that the government's National Land Acquisition and Redistribution Committee had agreed on Sunday "to expedite the process of identifying more farms" for resettlement.

A spokesman for the CFU, which represents 4,500 primarily white farmers, said the union had no details of the government's latest plans and might get them at the Monday meeting.

Anarchy on the farms

"The principal objective of the meeting is the restoration of law and order on the farms and the removal of all invaders," CFU director David Hasluck told Reuters.

"Farmers need help and direction because anarchy exists in many farming areas and there is disorder and uncertainty created by differences between what the government says and does and what (war veterans leader Chenjerai) Hunzvi says and does," Hasluck added.

ZTV reported at the weekend that the government would use the army to provide transport and logistical support for the resettlement programme.

The television report came a day after the CFU said it would back a three-day general strike called by the country's main labor movement to press Mugabe to end violence against opposition supporters and the occupation of about 1,000 white-owned farms.

Business leaders are due to meet on Monday to discuss the proposed strike, which the government has denounced as "ill-advised" and meant to undermine its authority.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, which enjoys the support of most of the country's 1.2 million laborers, said the nationwide strike would begin on Wednesday.

The strike is also being supported by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which says war veterans occupying farms since February are busy "raping, beating and killing farm workers."

White farmers employ about 300,000 people and the government has not explained what will happen to them and their families when the farms are redistributed.

The proposed strike is the first major challenge to Mugabe since his ruling ZANU-PF party narrowly won fiercely-contested parliamentary elections last month.

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