IMF forces Mugabe to back down

14 January 1999

IMF forces Mugabe to back down

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forced the Zimbabwean Government to retract plans for a mass confiscation of white farms.

The IMF told President Mugabe that it would freeze international funding if the confiscations went ahead.

President Mugabe has now agreed that, over the next two years, it will buy only the 118 farms offered for resettlement.

The Government is expected to make a statement in the next few days committing itself to a land reform programme which will not destroy commercial farmers.

Last November, the Government made a provisional seizure of 841 farms.

• Zimbabwes whites to keep their land, FWi, yesterday (13 January, 1999)
• The Times 14/01/99 page 15
  
• Financial Times 14/01/99 page 6
  
• The Daily Telegraph 14/01/99 page 16