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.
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.
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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.
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The remarks were subsequently published on the website of the South African Presidency, and on YouTube:
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