CONSERVANCIES DEMOLISHED FOR CHINESE FARMER
… as the ZanuPF unstoppable train moves on
Daily News 27 January 2011
Tatenda Chitagu
MASVINGO – The Government, or at least its ZanuPF component, is planning to seize all conservancies in the lowveld area, largely owned by British and American investors, and hand them over to a Chinese cotton grower.
ZanuPF politburo members, Higher Education minister Stan Mudenge and Indigenisation minister Saviour Kasukuwere told owners of the conservancies to their face at a recent meeting in Masvingo that they were going to invade the conservancies, kill all the animals there and eat them – and that the threats were real.
Mudenge said there was no going back on the conservancies as ZanuPF was “an unstoppable train”.
“We are coming with much more determination and resolve under indigenisation. The year 2011 will not be business as usual,” Mudenge declared. “The train is unstoppable. We will do something. Anybody who thinks he can stand in our way is a fool. Nobody can stop us.”
He said ZanuPF “is not begging anyone” and could invade the wildlife-rich conservancies in the Lowveld “anytime” if so wished.
“We are not begging anyone, the resources are ours. It is time to assert control. We have got that right. We do not need to ask for permission. It will not take us three months to destroy the conservancies.
“After all, what is a conservancy? Just a hut built with pole and dagga. Are we not able to erect ours? We can go and erect parallel structures and kill all the animals and eat the meat. Our craving for meat is very big anyway.
“If it proves difficult to partner conservancy owners, we will agitate that those conservancies become agricultural land and we will take back the wildlife to Gonarezhou National Park,” said Mudenge. Kasukuwere weighed in and said there was need to justify such colonial imbalances by repossessing the conservancies.
“We did not go to war to remain poor and dispossessed. We fought to take control of our resources. These and not empty threats. We mean business.”
The two officials were speaking to party supporters and indigenisation stakeholders at the Masvingo Civic Centre.
Mudenge said the conservancies would be given to a Chinese investor who was into cotton production so that the country would get foreign currency from the crop in the event that tobacco, which is the country’s top forex earner, was banned on the international market.
“Our top cash crop, tobacco, is about to be banned on the international market. We have to grow cotton to get forex.
Therefore, we will take the conservancies where the soil is suitable for cotton and give them to a Chinese investor who is into cotton growing.
“We have already identified a Chinese investor in Masvingo who is into cotton growing,” said Mudenge.
He said the conservancies were “not helping anything” as they were in the hands of foreigners.
“We are not benefitting anything from the conservancies as they are in the hands of foreigners. We need to change that and take them. The animals, the land everything is ours,” Mudenge said.
Mudenge dismissed as futile attempts by some white conservancy owners who petitioned Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai for protection against illegal invasion.
“We know some conservancy owners met the PM over the pending takeover. But I am saying, do not waste your time lobbying someone, lobby us here.”
The faces of white conservancy owners who were in the meeting turned red and pale as the threats were made.