Zimbabwe begins seizure of 1,000 white-owned farms

The Zimbabwean Government has banned 1,000 white farmers from working their fields and has given them three months to leave their homes as part of its fast-track land reform plans.

President Robert Mugabe today invoked special powers forcing the farmers to stop work, regardless of whether they have crops waiting to be harvested.

Just over 5,000 white farmers, descendents of the British settlers, currently own around 90% of the arable land in Zimbabwe.

President Mugabe has begun a controversial and often violent land reform programme that will see most of these farms redistributed to Zimbabwe’s impoverished black population.