UN General Assembly
2001

best of that land — is owned and utilized by less than 1 per cent of the population, represented by approximately 4,100 white farmers, most of them of British descent, while nearly 13 million black Zimbabweans eke out a living from the remaining 30 per cent — the worst of the arable land. Such a situation has to be corrected in the interests of equity, justice, social harmony and political stability in the country and, indeed, in our region of southern Africa. My Government has begun a land reform and redistribution programme, which, while ensuring that more people are settled on acquired land, will leave the current owners with only one farm each. At present, some of them own 18 farms each — and an average farm in Zimbabwe is 2,000 hectares. Some, like the Openheimer family, own land that is nearly the size of Belgium — one man owns property the size of Belgium in Zimbabwe. My Government’s land reform programme guarantees that none of the white farmers will be left landless. Every existing white farmer who