No need for land audit: Mutasa
By Gift Phiri, Senior Writer
Friday, 09 March 2012 12:48
HARARE – President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF has said there is no need for the
proposed land audit ostensibly because there were no multiple farm owners in
Zimbabwe.
Minister of State in the President’s office Didymus Mutasa, who is also Zanu
PF administration secretary, told state TV on Wednesday that three land
audits he conducted had confirmed that the poor black masses were the major
beneficiaries, not the cronies named in several audit reports; and therefore
there was no need for another land audit.
Government has still not taken up an offer of $31 million from the European
Union to bankroll the planned land audit.
The European Commission in Zimbabwe has said the EU was ready to fund an
“inclusive, transparent and comprehensive land audit” but said no one had
come forward to claim the money.
But Mutasa said there was no need for another audit.
“On multiple ownership, when I was minister of lands, it didn’t exist at
all,” Mutasa said on the programme Economic Forum.
“We did investigation work to discover who might be the people owning two
pieces of land and as far as we were concerned, there was no one. I can give
you my example; my name is Didymus Mutasa it can be abbreviated into D.
Mutasa. I also got a nephew who is David Mutasa it can be abbreviated into
D. Mutasa.
“And when some onlooker sees that, he will say, ‘look at Mutasa, he has two
pieces of land.’ But if then you go further to look at the registration
numbers you will discover that they are not the same. But because they want
to rubbish our names, they will say ‘oh, Cde Mutasa has two farms.’”
Mutasa, who was vocal against multiple farm owners, insisted there were no
multiple farm owners in Zanu PF despite irrefutable evidence provided by
three government land audits and an independent probe by the CFU.
“I have seen there is D. Mutasa who owns Mt Compton, there is D. Mutasa who
owns another piece of land. So in essence the land audit that is being
called is not necessary,” Mutasa said.
“They will find exactly the same thing with the three audits that we took
when I was minister of Lands, nothing has changed.”
Despite Mutasa’s denial, the Commercial Farmers Union states that Mugabe and
his wife Grace, now own 14 farms, at least 16 000 hectares in size.