Mugabe seizes SA-owned company

[dArKeR]

Zimbabwe's land seizures have escalated with the government's confiscation of the country's largest sugar producer, Hippo Valley.

The vast estate in the southeastern corner of the country annually produces 236 000 tons of sugar, estimated to be worth R524,8-million. Hippo Valley covers nearly 70 000ha and employs 6 000 full-time workers and 4 000 seasonal workers. With the Triangle sugar estate it produces all of Zimbabwe's sugar and exports large amounts to neighbouring countries.

Industrial plantations producing sugar, coffee, tea and timber had been exempt from President Robert Mugabe's seizures of white-owned farms, but an amendment to last month's Land Acquisition Act relaxed requirements to allow the government to confiscate the huge developments.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=30545