President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Thursday that Government is repossessing land from multiple farm owners in order to redistribute it to other landless Zimbabweans who include the youths. Cde Mnangagwa who was addressing youths at a Zanu-PF youth convention in Gweru, said Government was also downsizing farms to benefit those who did not have land. “There is a committee carrying out a land audit and those with more than one farm are being asked to surrender the other farms and remain with one,” said Cde Mnangagwa.

He said Government also discovered that the sizes of some farms far exceed the recommended sizes which are based on farming regions and these are being downsized. The land, as rightly pointed out by Cde Mnangagwa, is a finite resource that should be shared by all Zimbabweans yearning to venture into farming. There is therefore a need to equitably distribute this God-given resource hence this land audit underway to ensure fair distribution of the land.

The country cannot afford the luxury of allowing individuals to keep land as a status symbol at the expense of using it productively. Those who were allocated land should ensure that it is fully utilised or risk having it withdrawn. There are reports that most A2 farmers are not using the land productively with many of them keeping land as a status symbol as opposed to farming.

It is a fact that many of the farmers had nothing when they got the land but many of them have been on the land for more than ten years now. Government has over the years been assisting the farmers with inputs and many of them benefited from the Government’s farm mechanisation programme. A serious farmer who wants to work on the land should have over the period built the capacity to fully utilise the land.

Those who took the land for speculative purposes or just to acquire a new status of being farm owners have obviously done nothing to build their capacity to utilise the land and as such their land has been idle for years. We want at this juncture to implore Government to move with speed to repossess farms from multiple farm owners as well as downsize the big farms guided by the recommended size of each region.

Zimbabwe needs to be self-sufficient in food and this is only possible when every piece of land allocated to new farmers is fully utilised. Government on its part has covered a lot of ground in its bid to correct the skewed land ownership that favoured whites and the onus is now on those that benefited from the land reform programme to fully utilise the land.

We believe most A2 farmers should by now be able to adequately fund their farming activities as opposed to waiting for free inputs from Government. Government should have long weaned these farmers who should take farming as a business. The nation looks up to these farmers to provide adequate food as well as create employment for our graduates from colleges and universities.

The youths told Cde Mnangagwa at the convention that they also want to benefit from the land reform programme and this is very encouraging. Instead of seeking employment, the youths are demanding access to resources so that they create their own employment. Government should therefore move swiftly to avail land and other resources to empower these youths who, as already alluded to, include graduates from our colleges and universities.