Harare - Zimbabwe's agriculture minister has told white farmers to leave their property immediately to make way for black settlers.
"Commercial farmers have refused the concept of co-existence, and some of them have even gone on to beat up resettled farmers. That is unacceptable and we now require all those in areas gazetted for resettlement to pave the way for settlers," Joseph Made said in an interview with the state-run Sunday Mail.
The Zimbabwe government has gazetted 5 327 white-owned farms totalling 9,5 million hectares for seizure, marking more than 90 percent of all white-owned land.
Made's statement came after last week's upsurge in violence on farms around the northern town of Chinhoyi, where violent mobs ransacked about 50 white-owned farms.
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White farmers have won a Supreme Court ruling that declared the government's resettlement scheme unconstitutional and that ordered police to evict thousands of pro-government militants who have forcibly occupied white farms since February last year.
President Robert Mugabe's government has ignored the ruling and pushed ahead with his scheme, which aims to redress inequities in land ownership left from the colonial government.
The farm violence has had a strong political colouring, closely tied to the government's crackdown on dissent ahead of presidential elections due in April. - Sapa-AFP
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