ED’s stance on multiple farm owners hailed

PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has been hailed for his stance to name and shame multiple farm owners exposed by the ongoing land audit and those who abused their positions to acquire more than one property. 

The President, in an interview with Capitalk 100.4 FM last Friday, said while the ongoing land audit was yet to be concluded, preliminary results indicate that some high ranking officials had acquired more than one farm against the Government policy of one family, one farm. 

Prominent among the multiple farm owners, President Mnangagwa said, is former First Lady Grace Mugabe with 16 farms. 

“The interim report, I have is that, I think about eight provinces have been done. They are left with two provinces that have not been completed but the majority of inconsistencies relate to multiple ownership of farms. 

“We have some farm owners especially people of higher rank in society having more than one farm, some as many as nine. I know of a particular lady, Stop It, who has 16 farms and the law says one family, one farm. Once the audit is over, we should be able to implement that policy,” said President Mnangagwa.

“We have people who have a farm and register a farm in a child who is about two years old and give him a farm of 800 hectares but if you go and trace who this person is, it’s a child who is two years old so all these things are being unearthed through this audit which is going on.” 

President Mnangagwa said after completion, the land audit would be made public. 

“…in my view, we should also be able to make it public as to who was doing what, because this land does not belong to one person but belongs to us all so we must know who are misusing the privilege of their offices, that must be published,” he said. 

Zanu-PF youth league national deputy secretary Cde Lewis Matutu said even if the audit was yet to be completed, the President was talking from an informed position. 

Cde Matutu called on senior officials who amassed more than one farm to surrender the remainder. 

“Where we have cases like a person getting 10 or 16 of them like the case of Grace Mugabe, she must choose one and the other 15 must be given in particular to us the young people as we are the disadvantaged group because we were young when the land was distributed,” he said. 

Cde Matutu said adhering to the one family one farm policy would ensure effective use of the land towards economic development. 

He said the majority of multiple farm owners have large tracts of land lying idle and not benefitting the country.

“The President is very correct, the law must not be applied selectively. Whoever has more than one farm must surrender the other farms so that others can benefit and you realise that it is going to impact very positively on the agricultural sector because land will be used productively. 

“No one will hold land for speculative purposes but for production which is what we want,” said Cde Matutu. 

“The President’s interview also reflects the level of corruption that had been tolerated in the old dispensation where systems were used to benefit individuals instead of benefitting the people so that must end.” 

He said beyond the land issue, any form of corruption should be punished. 

“We want to see very senior people in the government or the party, if they are dirty, they would rather resign so that they don’t dent the vision and efforts by the President of reviving the country,” Cde Matutu said.

Political analyst Mr Michael Mhlanga said the President is walking the talk in fighting corruption of any form. 

“The move to expropriate land from these farm barons reflects the new dispensation’s commitment not only to fighting corruption but to economic redistribution by virtue of disrupting land cartels and opening up the space to national economic interests. 

“Agrarian restructuring in general has always been used as a basis for recounting development targets, from the colonial to the 3rd Chimurenga, land redistribution can never be separated from the beginning of a development initiative and as such this being the 4th Chimurenga we should expect an outcome that responds to the needs of the povo,” said Mr Mhlanga.

“The move by the President reflects the majority will of many Zimbabweans. The central message in his interview was the claim to the lost land, a claim which resonates with the experiential consciousness of both the peasant Zimbabwean and the economic Zimbabwean. Land remains both the ideological and practical focus and as such redistribution entails social justice and economic justice.”

Another political analyst Mr Richard Mahomva said: “This further shows how the Government has launched in full force its commitment to fighting corruption affecting various facets of economic development.”