THE moment that hastened the demise of Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe was when he decreed that all white-owned farms should be violently seized and handed to black members of the population.

Almost overnight, the country went from being the bread basket of Africa to an economic basket case instead as the once lush and productive farms became useless.

It is not the black farmers fault that they couldn't make it work, the vast majority had never run a farm before so the fact they turned into dustbowls was not a huge surprise.

To be fair, if I was handed several thousands acres of prime Perthshire soil and told to make it work then I couldn't either.

As Jeremy Clarkson entertainingly reveals every year, farming is extremely hard work and is best left to the hard working farmers who know what they are doing.

Regardless of the well-publicised descent of Zimbabwe into sky-high inflation, unemployment and hunger, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has decided he would make it work.

In 2025, he signed into law a bill allowing land seizures by the state without compensation - a move that put him at odds with some members of his government.

Black South Africans still only own a small fraction of farmland nationwide more than 30 years after the end of the apartheid - the majority remains with the white minority.

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This has led to frustration and anger over the slow pace of reform, and also stoked up racial tensions in a country that knows from bitter experience how that can pan out.

It all sounds a bit Communist-like really and........

© Herald Scotland