via Cluff: On Mugabe and white farmers – NewZimbabwe 16 January 2015
LEGENDARY British resources entrepreneur, Algy Cluff, travelled to Zimbabwe within weeks of the country’s independence in 1980 to explore investment opportunities.
Shortly after that he had established Cluff Resources which owned the country’s biggest gold mine, Freda Rebecca, at Bindura.
He would therefore be familiar and have had dealings with President Robert Mugabe and the local white community; a bitter falling out between the two has been at the centre of the country’s political and economic problems since the turn of the millennium.
Critics blame the effective collapse of the economy on Mugabe’s decision to move against the white farming community, having protected them since independence in 1980.
Beginning around the year 2000, the Zanu PF leader unleashed veterans of the country’s liberation struggle, letting them forcibly and even violently seize farms owned by whites, supposedly to correct colonial injustices in the ownership of land.
The country’s agriculture-based economy expectedly seized-up, a crisis worsened by the emotional response of major western powers who imposed debilitating sanctions after being angered by the killing of some of the farmers.
But in an interview this week, Cluff said the white farmers rewarded Mugabe rather terribly after enjoying the protection of the veteran leader for years.
He felt the white farmers should have, but failed to, meet Mugabe halfway.
“They (farmers) had a lot to answer for. They were in a catatonic state after independence,” Cluff said in an interview with UK financial magazine MoneyWeek.
“They should have gone to Mugabe and said: ‘Look, we realise we’ve now lost this war, it’s about land. Why don’t we give you half our land, train some Africans to run it?’
“But there was nothing. They were absolutely in a kind of sclerotic state so Mugabe just got fed up after a while. Extremely regrettable.”
Of the Zimbabwean leader, Cluff said: “I knew him very well.
“I remember clearly a stand-up row with him 15 years ago. But I always thought that he nearly got it right.
“He preached reconciliation long before Mandela did, and protected the white farmers, notwithstanding the fact that he’d won the war.
“I thought he behaved, for the first 15 years, really rather well.”
Mugabe was, for years, a darling of Western powers, welcome and feted in London and Washington even as his administration allegedly massacred some 20,000 civilians in the Matabeleland and Midlands regions.
Now, although he remains a liberation icon in Africa, Mugabe is considered an unhinged despot by the West and has to use the excuse of attending United Nations meetings to force visits to western capitals.
He regularly lambasts western leaders, the British in particular and Cluff said betrayal by the former coloniser forced him to change.
Cluff reckons Mugabe felt he was double-crossed by the British government – that he was promised tens of millions of dollars as part of the Lancaster House Agreement, but it was never delivered to him.
“The money in question was partially, I think, destined for the white farmers, to buy them out on a willing sale basis. And with that [financial] consideration, I think the problems could have been defused,” said Cluff.
Again, the death in 1992 of Mugabe’s first wife, Sally, also robbed the veteran leader of a calming wife.
Widely popular with Zimbabweans, Sally was, Cluff said, a very intelligent woman who had great sway over her husband.
“When she died, I think that kind of removed a kind of calming influence,” Cluff explained.
“She knew the capricious character of her husband. She’d chuck a bucket of cold water over him when he started getting excitable.
“But when she had gone… he was always very solitary anyway and never had any friends.
“He became more and more remote and isolated; and obsessed by this fact that Britain had, as he saw it, double-crossed him, betrayed him.”
Nearly 35 years after taking over a fairly healthy country by developing world standards, Mugabe remains in power but weakened by advanced age and failing health.
Mugabe turns 91 in February but the country’s economy is in ruins and his Zanu PF party effectively splintered in two.
He is again under the ever increasing but unhelpful (say liberation colleagues recently booted out of the party and government) influence of his current wife Grace, a former presidential typist he had an extramarital affair with while Sally struggled with the kidney ailment which eventually killed her.
Grace led the campaign which resulted in the dismissal of former vice president Joice Mujuru and several cabinet ministers over as yet unproven allegations they planned to either topple or, failing that, assassinate Mugabe.
After claiming for herself a key position in the ruling party, the First Lady is now thought to be actively considering succeeding her husband.
COMMENTS
Oh you pillock! We had been helping and training up and coming black farmers long before this s..t happened. The only criteria was that they also had to put capital in the project. Don’t you realize that the so called land reform programme had nothing to do with correcting imbalances of the past? It was about keeping in power. What is happening now? The so called new farmers in Mazoe are being kicked off the land because a greedy woman wants it. Wake up!
mr. Cluff you are wrong, Lord Somes warned us “you have 20 years , then u must have made another plan B! we did not believe him , the Land was Zimbabwe’s trumfcard. If Zim compensated for the land in Z$ then . Zim would have had all the money back in a few years, and the country would have boomed, and the west would have given all the fund back in hard currency , but it was not to be . We must blamed Thabo Mbeki ,if there were no sanctions SA would have gone the same way fast
I told you so. You are 100% correct , what happened to the £44million that was given to Zim by the Poms for land redistribution , Cluff Stay in mud island where you belong and be careful of the Taliban!!!! It’s much safe in Zim
Mr. Cluff you have shown your total lack of knowledge with regard to the land issue in Zimbabwe. The Government of Zimbabwe through the willing buyer willing seller arrangement set out in the Lancaster House constitution saw Robert Mugabe between 1980 and 1999 purchase in excess of 10 million hectares of prime agricultural land. This land was distributed and today lies idle along side the newly acquired 8 million hectares he stole between 2002 and 2008. The white farmers were indeed the only serious stakeholders in trying to address the land distribution issue in Zimbabwe in an equitable and orderly manner. The proof of this effort was seen in the 1998 World Bank Land donor conference organized by the Commercial Farmers Union and all other appropriate stakeholders – which the Zimbabwean Government signed up to but reneged on later – a typical Robert Mugabe tactic. The bottom line is that there was enough land to go round – Mugabe knew this, but he wasn’t interested in equitable redistribution he wanted to keep the land issue for a day when he needed it for political leverage, hence the chaotic so called land reform exercise in 2002 onward. So Mr. Cluff, do you honestly think that the the white farmers were so naive about the land issue that they stood back and did nothing to contribute… shows your stupidity to the fullest extent. A question for you Mr. Cluff… do you now think that the land distribution exercise of 2002-2008 was successful, do you see the country feeding itself – the country is in absolute ruin as a result of this chaotic land reform exercise… just so that you are informed, a country cannot develop without successful commercial agriculture it simply is impossible – the sooner you realize that and the Zimbabwe Government realizes that the better..oh and by the way that includes freehold title of land !!
You are so right Chiwaridza. And furthermore many, many white commercial farmers had been assisting black farmers by offering equipment and expertise, before their farms were grabbed by greedy so called bigwigs. Can’t you see? What is happening right now in Zimbabwe? Those very black Zimbabweans who ended up on a white mans farm are now being evicted by who? None other than Grace Mugabe. Don’t keep on and on blaming the white Zimbabweans for the shambles that the so called land reform programme has become.
I addition whilst those like Algy Cluff were toadying up to Mugabe he was committing genocide in Matabeleland and eroding the rule of law. Today Zimbabwe is a land without law, where the police are ZANU PF enforcers, court orders are ignored and the the politically connected areable to commit crimes from petty theft to murder without being held accountable. No investor worthy of the name would waste money on the place.
Mr. Cluff how can you seriously blame a hand full of White farmers for the mess that Zimbabwe is now in? White farmers were the ones that made Rhodesia/Zimbabwe the bread basket of Southern Africa. It is common knowledge that the so called land reform program was nothing more than grand theft to achieve a few objectives, these being to punish white farmers for showing support for the MDC (IT IS NOT A CRIME TO SUPPORT AN OPPOSITION PARTY)To buy the loyalty of ignorant peasants and Mugabe had also known that the majority of farm workers would not support Zanupf at election time, so in order to “show them the right way to vote” Zanupf needed control of the farming areas. Mr. Cluff your dishonest British politicians (SOAMES) Were ultimately responsible for bringing Mugabe into power in the first place, for had the Lancaster House agreement been followed and honoured to the letter, Zanupf would have been disqualified in the 1980 elections due to the over a thousand documented brutal acts of intimidation carried out by Zanla against the defenceless rural population to “show them what would happen if they did not vote “the right way”
Britain used to be called Great Britain and the name change is due to such persons as Algae Cluff. Dishonesty and lack of backbone have become a given in certain sections of society in the UK. Luckily we still have the Royal Family and the good old basic rural Brit that able to keep the ship afloat.
Cluff could not give a damn for the common man in Zimbabwe. His comments are aimed at the back end of Mugabe – a person who single handedly been able to destroy a viable economy through bad governance, racism and greed.
Britain used to be called Great Britain and the name change is due to such persons as Algae Cluff. Dishonesty and lack of backbone have become a given in certain sections of society in the UK. Luckily we still have the Royal Family and the good old basic rural Brit that able to keep the ship afloat.
Cluff could not give a damn for the common man in Zimbabwe.
Britain used to be called Great Britain and the name change is due to such persons as Algae Cluff. Dishonesty and lack of backbone have become a given in certain sections of society in the UK. Luckily we still have the Royal Family and the good old basic rural Brit that able to keep the ship afloat.
Cluff could not give a damn for the common man in Zimbabwe.
Why should I bother!!!!!
Cluff, any sensible person with the slightest bit of common sense would not write an article, expressing their opinions on a subject they obviously have no clue on. Why do you bother? The whole world knows Mugabe and his corruption gang never won the war, it was the British who have no backbone nor honor. It is likes of individuals such as yourself that make a complete hash of everything (as has happened to Rhodesia) that they try get involved in. Reign yourself in sunshine before you hurt yourself with your ignorance!!
Here is the link to the moneyweek article referred to http://moneyweek.com/resources-pioneer-algy-cluff-i-like-to-think-i-helped-open-up-africa-to-investors/
Cliff you are a whining pom, stay in mud island. Mugabe is to blame for the state of the country no one else. Doubt if his successor will be any different considering his track record. Cry the beloved country.