Comment: Zimbabwe - return of evicted farmers not all black and white

Gideon Gono, governor of Zimbabwe's central bank, wants the return of white farmers to help the countries economic problems. You would think it would be relatively simple to gauge reaction to this idea wouldn't you? However, a quick look at news headlines may leave you a little confused.

ABC Radio Australia claims, "White farmers applaud call to return to land."

Across the other side of the world, Britains Daily Telegraph carries the headline, "White farmers reject Mugabe plea to return"

The Telegraph's opening paragraph goes a step further, describing in lurid detail how, "White farmers evicted by Robert Mugabe's government have reacted with contempt to an offer that they should return to Zimbabwe to take part in "joint ventures" with those who brutalised them and stole their land."

ABC Radio Australia is more encouraging. "White Zimbabwean farmers have welcomed a suggestion from the country's Reserve Bank that they should return to the farms taken from them by the Mugabe regime."

Just how realistic is this proposition? The timing of Mr Gono's, statement comes a month before he meets with the IMF and World Bank.

Gono, an anti corruption campaigner dubbed, "The Zimbabwean Napoleon," is under attack from members of the ruling Zanu PF party opposed to his policies of devaluation and re-engagement with the west.

Gono is keen to repair damage with the IMF, an institution Mugabe openly despises. Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk by more than 40% in five years and the IMF have given Zimbabwe a six month deadline to get the economy back on track.

Anxious to attract foreign investment, Gono may believe such a proposal would prove attractive to the world's financial organisations.

However, Gono's power appears to be limited and Mugabe himself has not commented on his proposal. Furthermore, his monetary policies have been blocked to such an extent that in April, according to the, The Daily News, he tendered his resignation but was turned down by Mugabe.

And if the white farmers did return, what then? Could they be guaranteed five or ten year leases, or would they be turfed out as soon as things improved? Would the whites return with a "payback" time mentality or be met with resentment by black farmers?

If Gono comes back empty handed from his meetings with the IMF and World Bank, how will the hawks in Zanu PF, feel about his virtual admission that the policies of Mugabe have failed?