The government is expected to admit in the next few days that it has only used about 50 per cent of the land it seized. In reality, land economists say the figure of idle land is nearer 80 to 90 per cent.

The union yesterday issued a rare statement calling for a ''moratorium on land and agricultural policies''. All those involved in agriculture should get together and "rebuild the entire industry to return as the principal employer of labour and generator of food and foreign exchange", it said.

"We have the energy and capacity to help bring Zimbabwe back once again to be the bread basket of the sub-continent."

Mr Mugabe's justification for sowing this violence and misery was that Zimbabwe would be rid of the white farmers. These "racists" and "oppressors", as he usually called them, would be driven from the country. Yet suddenly the president realises that it was all for nothing. The murders and beatings, the poverty caused by destroying the backbone of Zimbabwe's economy, were entirely pointless.

But how do you rebuild something which has been smashed into a thousand pieces?