Land reform in need of review— Ray
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Thursday, 24 November 2011 17:59
Gamma Mudarikiri
UNITED States ambassador to Zimbabwe Charles Ray on Wednesday said there was
need to review the country’s land reform programme embarked on in 2000
because the majority of the population remained landless and destitute. Ray
was speaking in Bindura where he commissioned the US$2 million Mashonaland
Livelihoods Restoration Programme (MLRP). The MLRP is an irrigation project
which was funded by the embassy in partnership with the Africare and Zambuko
Trust. This irrigation project is set to help more than 5 500 vulnerable
small-scale farmers in Bindura and Guruve.
Immeasurable farmland, he said, lay idle countrywide while most people
remained landless, hence the need for an immediate review of the land reform
programme to ensure that the land-hungry majority are catered for.
Ray said more people should have a fair share of land if the country was to
meet the human dignity the armed struggle sought to secure. He said
Zimbabweans needed to think constructively and agree on transparent and
flexible measures in land administration to increase land productivity.
“The US and I personally believe that land reform in Zimbabwe is necessary,”
said Ray. “Far too many Zimbabweans, black, white and in-between, lack the
opportunity to make the most of their talents, ideas and ambitions.”
He said the US government was never against the general objectives of land
reform to economically empower people, but was against violence and
displacement of people through which the programme was implemented.
The US government, Ray said, had recognised the need for the ordinary people
to access land long before the controversial programme, which resulted in
the majority of the 4 500 white commercial farmers losing their land, but
had expected it to be done fairly.
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) president Charles Taffs concurred with Ray
saying large tracts of farmland were lying idle in the country, and his
organisation had engaged the government to correct the irregularities but
this had yielded little results.
Taffs said the CFU had started training and mentorship programmes
countrywide in a bid to equip small-scale farmers with requisite farming
skills. He also urged subsistence farmers to shift to commercial farming to
increase food production in the country.
Ray also castigated the Zimbabwean government for failing to respect
property rights. He said American business leaders had seen opportunities
created by the economic recovery, but they were concerned with the security
of their investments.
“As Zimbabwe moves into its future, its greatest challenge is to show its
own citizens and foreign investors alike that their claims to property are
safe. Uncertainty in property rights is a deal breaker,” said Ray.
He stressed that consistent and clear laws governing property rights were
critical at this stage. He said the US was not opposed to empowerment and
equitable distribution of national wealth, but wanted it to be implemented
fairly and in a transparent manner.
“I hope you will remember that true empowerment does not come at a neighbour’s
expense,” Ray said. He said politically-motivated dispossession and
retaliation created conflict rather than empowerment.
Bindura district administrator Cuthbert Wubaye hailed the US government
support saying the programme had empowered the community since 180 community
members had been trained in agro processing and marketing with optimism that
the number would increase.