Mugabe's Lies - 500000 People Wait For Land

Since the beginning of the landgrab in early 2000, Mugabe has repeatedly told the world that what his party has been looking at doing in 'correcting the imbalance of land tenure' caused by the colonial period when the majority of the land ended up in the hands of the white man. He has further stated that the seized land would be given to the 'landless blacks' in the country.

And then ZANU PF have grabbed all the land and kept it...

land grab NmlFZ 16744

"Ten years after President Robert Mugabe embarked on his controversial land reforms, more than half a million people remain on the government’s waiting list for farmland, his ZANU PF has conceded.

A report from the party’s department on land reform, resettlement and agriculture said there was still high demand for land and urged the government to continue with the acquisition of farms.

"There is a waiting list of over 500000 of both A1 and A2 applications distributed throughout all provinces countrywide and the ministry keeps receiving requests or applications on a daily basis for land resettlement," the report said.

"Scientific and empirical evidence shows that the communal areas are still overcrowded."

Instead of seizing more land, ZANU PF need to sort out the land that has somehow ended up in the hands of ZANU PF, some officials owning more than one farm, in direct contravention of the policies dictated by Mugabe himself, but since Mugabe's family is thought to own about a dozen farms between them all, he can hardly enforce the policy...

"Although the government has acquired an estimated 4500 farms since 2000, critics claim the programme has benefited well-connected individuals and senior regime figures with very little of the land going to ordinary people.

There have also been reports of multiple farm ownership’s by senior government and party officials with little action being taken to address the problem despite numerous threats.

Meanwhile, the ZANU PF report added that there were still several cases of illegal settlements on farms, conservancies and national parks around the country citing the case of the Chitsa people who continue to occupy sections of the Gonarezhou national park in Masvingo province.

The report said the government must also acquire more land in order to resettle people being moved to make way for key developmental projects.

"Important examples are Tokwe-Mukosi dam; Kunzvi dam, Murowa and Chiadzwa diamond sites. Land has to be found to accommodate all the people to be relocated," the report read.

"Given the high demand for land as observed above, it is necessary to continue with acquisition and redistribution of land."

Now we know why Mugabe and his loyalists have been resisting a land audit, as such an exercise will prove beyond any doubt that ZANU PF have cherry-picked the land for themselves, contrary to any statement by Mugabe and those that follow him.

It is very interesting to read that 'more land' is required when you remember that the Minister for Agriculture, former failed Finance Minister, Herbert Murerwa, has stated recently that the land will be repossessed from people who fail to use it. That would mean a lot of land would be coming back from absentee ZANU PF 'landowners'.

Robb WJ Ellis

The Bearded Man