#Zimbabwe: Mugabe’s white ally in land grab row
▻http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/25281-zimbabwe-mugabe-s-white-ally-in-land-grab-row
Black peasant farmers in Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands have accused controversial white Zimbabwean businessperson Billy Rautenbach of forcing them off their land and destroying their livelihoods through a $600-million ethanol plant that enjoys extensive government support.
They are also complaining that Rautenbach did not honour an offer to set them up as sugar cane growers to feed the factory.
Rautenbach has already taken 9 400 hectares from local farmers, uprooting more than 1 700 households with an estimated 10 000 members. But he says he will need 45 000 hectares for cane production when the factory is at full capacity, suggesting that the land grab will continue.
Government backing for the plant, which includes legislation giving Rautenbach a production monopoly, represents an ironic reversal of Zanu-PF’s proclaimed land reform policy, which is supposedly intended to benefit small black farmers.
Rautenbach’s fast and furious rise to riches in South Africa and other African countries has frequently stirred controversy (see “Billy Rautenbach’s disingenuous and slippery story” below). He is alleged to have profited from Zimbabwe’s military adventure in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1998 and to have donated generously to Zanu-PF’s election coffers. His close relationship with the ruling party saw him added to the list of individuals on the European Union’s targeted sanctions against the Zimbabwean elite.