Zimbabwe President Mr Robert Mugabe told white farmers today he stands by an August deadline for them to clear out and pave the way for his black resettlement land reforms.
"We set ourselves an August deadline for the redistribution of land and that deadline stands," Mr Mugabe said in a televised address during a funeral for a former finance minister.
Mr Mugabe's government had ordered 2,900 of the remaining 4,500 white commercial farmers to surrender their lands without compensation to black settlers by midnight (local time) last Thursday.
"We, the principled people of Zimbabwe, we, the true owners of this land, shall not budge. We shall not be deterred on this one vital issue, the land. The land is ours," Mr Mugabe told over 15,000 supporters.
Farming sources have estimated that about 40 per cent of the farmers had obeyed the instruction but others were holding on in the hope of a reprieve from the country's courts or from Mr Mugabe. White farmers defying the order to leave their land face up to two years in jail.
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Mr Mugabe said the deadline would allow new owners of the land enough time to prepare and plant for the new crop season, which should start in October.
Returning to his regular condemnation of Britain's role in opposing his government and its land seizures, Mugabe said: "No gold, no silver is precious enough to buy our sovereignty . . . we are not for sale, and Zimbabwe is not for sale. Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans. We are not for the highest bidder in Europe or elsewhere".