ZIMBABWE: What does its future hold?

I was very interested in Tony Willis' article about Zimbabwe, (Northumberland Gazette, August 4).

Mugabe surely can’t go on much longer, and then what?

My late sister married and went out to Rhodesia, as it was then, when she was 21.

Her husband Jack De Wet was a third generation Rhodesian.

When the war came he joined the Rhodesian Air Force, and flew a Spitfire in Ian Smith’s squadron. He was shot down over North Africa and taken prisoner.

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After the war ex-service men in Rhodesia were given a land grant, and he started farming, but before settling down, he applied for a Nuffield Scholarship and came to England, and that is where he met my sister.

They had four children and were very successful farming, but they always said that one day they would have to leave with just a suitcase.

We didn’t really believe them.

Jack died before that happened, and my sister spent her remaining years here with me, on the farm she was brought up on.

Incidentally, I have recently read two books about Zim, about the wonderful life out there, and then the dreadful time they had with Mugabe’s so called War Vets.

One is 104 Horses by Mandy Rezlaff, and the other one was Don’t Let Us Go To The Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller.

Alison Moore,

Cornhill-on-Tweed