Re: [L-I] Zimbabwe: all land nationalised

This Robertson economist does not know what he is talking about.  The 
British Crown always owned all land within the empire and in colonies 
like Hong Kong, land was leased to private owners for only 99 years.  
Hong Kong banks enjoy handsome profit lending to HK developers and home 
buyers using leased land as collateral.  When the British Crown owned 
the land, no warning of lost of freedom was ever heard.

Henry C.K. Liu

Macdonald Stainsby wrote:

> It's always nice to get good news for a change.
>
> Macdonald
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Michael Keaney
> Subject: [A-List] Zimbabwe: all land nationalised
>
> Zimbabwe nationalises all farmland in 'return to feudalism'
> By Basildon Peta Southern Africa Correspondent
> The Independent, 09 June 2004
>
> The Zimbabwe government has announced that all farmland will be
> nationalised, including all privately owned game parks, and private land
> ownership banned. The move has been described as the "single biggest 
> shock"
> of President Robert Mugabe's rule since independence from Britain in 
> 1980.
>
> "This has effectively turned back the clock and put Zimbabwe back into 
> the
> centuries-old feudal economic systems which benefited the kings and their
> aristocrats and impoverished the poor," said the prominent Zimbabwean
> economist John Robertson.
>
> In an announcement in the state owned Herald newspaper, John Nkomo, the
> Special Affairs Minister in the President's office in charge of Land 
> Reform
> and Resettlement, ordered all private land owners to give up their 
> land to
> the government immediately. He said they can then apply to the government
> for permission to lease the land.
>
> He did not say when the nationalisation process would be completed. 
> "In the
> end all land shall be state land and there will be no such thing called
> private land," Mr Nkomo said. "It will now be the state which will enable
> the utilisation of the land for national prosperity."
>
> The system of title deeds will be replaced with 99-year-long leases on 
> all
> land now being nationalised and appropriated by the state. Leases on the
> predominantly white-owned private game parks would be limited to only 25
> years to allow more blacks to partake in the lucrative sector, said Mr
> Nkomo.
>
> The Zimbabwe government has been seizing all white-owned farms and
> re-allocating them to blacks to promote private ownership of land by 
> blacks,
> previously disadvantaged by colonial-era policies.
>
> The latest move means even those blacks have now been deprived of their
> private ownership of land as all land will now be owned by the state.
>
> "Effectively, this means it is no longer possible for any person to 
> use land
> or any building on that land - be it a house or factory - as 
> collateral to
> borrow money from banks as it is classified as state land," said a
> government economist on condition of anonymity.
>
> "There is no better and quicker way of destroying an economy. I frankly
> don't know who advised them on this unacceptable step." Mr Robertson said
> the move would in effect stop any new foreign investment in Zimbabwe. It
> would also freeze all economic growth as nobody would have collateral to
> borrow money and develop their business.
>
> Mr Nkomo disputed that, saying the people approved as lease-holders could
> use the 99-year leases as collateral.
>
> But Mr Robertson said: "A lease has no collateral nor market value. A 
> lease
> means you don't own the property and no bank can regard something you 
> don't
> own as collateral."
>
> The decision to nationalise all land is being seen as the final nail 
> in the
> coffins of all the 4,000-plus white farmers whose land had already been
> seized but had been hoping to somehow get it back. This will no longer be
> possible as it is now classified as state land. The few remaining white
> farmers, estimated at fewer than 400, would have to give up their land 
> with
> no hope of getting it back. It is highly unlikely that Mugabe would 
> consider
> giving leases to any white farmers since he has been compulsorily taking
> their land and driving them out of the country.
>
> The move also means the legal process of serving notices of 
> acquisition of
> properties on farmers is no longer necessary as they simply forfeit their
> land to the state.
> Mr Nkomo said the government did not need to "waste time and money" in
> disputes with white farmers on seizures of individual farms whose owners
> held title deeds which they used in the courts to fight the seizures of
> their properties.
>
> Critics say the nationalisation process was one of Mugabe's biggest 
> assaults
> on individual freedoms in Zimbabwe as the country's constitution 
> protected
> property rights.
>
> "Respect for private tenure and title on property is the basis on 
> which all
> successful societies have been built," said a commercial bank 
> economist who
> did not want to be named. "Instead of learning from countries like 
> Britain
> and Japan which prospered by developing the concept of private ownership
> long back, from systems where all properties were owned by kings and
> emperors, Mugabe has effectively converted Zimbabwe into another North
> Korea."
>
> He said that economic history showed that all countries that nationalised
> land had experienced stagnation until they developed private 
> ownership. He
> said the disparities between North Korea and South Korea were 
> illustrative
> of the evils of nationalisation. A farmer who was last week served with a
> notice for the compulsory seizure of his farm said he had given up all 
> hope.
> "It would be plain futile for me to even contemplate trying to fight 
> for my
> rights now. The reasonable thing for me is to leave this country and 
> start
> elsewhere before I am caught in the next storm of Mugabe madness," 
> said the
> farmer, who also asked not to be named. "If they can do this thing in 
> this
> day and age, what can stop them from announcing they are seizing my
> refrigerator, and then my stove and in the end my wife."
>
> South Africa's main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, has urged
> President Thabo Mbeki to intervene immediately. Mr Mbeki has so far 
> spurned
> all calls to use his country's leverage with Zimbabwe to rein in Mr 
> Mugabe.
>
>
>
>



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