Zimbabwe Mulls Seizing Stolen Property from Mugabe Loyalists

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced on Wednesday that, following an audit of how the nation’s agricultural lands were being used, the nation would proceed with seizing property from wealthy members of the ruling Zanu-PF party deemed to own too much of it.

Dictator Robert Mugabe launched a nationwide campaign to eradicate white farmers from the country in 2000, seizing most of their land, largely through violent assaults, to allegedly distribute more fairly among the nation’s majority black population. Zimbabwe’s economy, largely based on its agricultural industry, fell into hyperinflation and poverty. Between 2000 and 2015, Zimbabwe saw a $12 billion drop in agriculture production, in part because many of the individuals gifted the stolen land had no history or knowledge of how to keep the land fertile. A 2010 study found that 40 percent of the stolen land fell into the hands of either Mugabe himself or his political allies.

On Wednesday, Mnangagwa – one of Mugabe’s closest cronies as vice president until a dispute with wife Grace Mugabe led him to flee the country and return leader of a bloodless coup – announced that he would soon change this, even as a member of Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party. Mnangagwa made the announcement while debuting the results of an audit on land usage in the country, according to the newspaper New Zimbabwe.

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