Zim 'wrecking' border park

Date: 11 June 2004

Source: News24.com (SA)

Author: Anon

Johannesburg - The land redistribution policy of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe was threatening to turn the transfrontier parks project from a showpiece into a wreck, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Thursday.

Addressing the Johannesburg Press Club, he said an owner of large tracts of conservancy land in Zimbabwe had approached him to address the matter in South Africa.

"The consequences are way beyond property ownership... I hope (Nelson) Mandela, (Thabo) Mbeki, and (Anton) Rupert will do something to stop this showpiece becoming a wreck."

On Thursday Leon criticised the 99-year lease programme being introduced in Zimbabwe as an "appalling step backwards".

He said nationalising all farmland in Zimbabwe would be an immediate red flag to potential investors in Southern Africa, and could not but affect South Africa negatively.