Cde Zindi

Harare Bureau
The government should reconsider a provision in land leases that empowers the responsible minister to unilaterally revoke the lease as that has the effect of creating uncertainty, Parliament heard last week.Mutasa South MP Cde Irene Zindi (Zanu-PF) said most farmers would have invested a lot on the farm and the existence of such a clause creates uncertainty and fear, thereby affecting productivity.

She said this while making a contribution on President Mugabe’s speech.

Cde Zindi said the lease agreement had a clause in which the responsible minister was conferred with powers to revoke it and in her view, that was not good considering that farming is a business.

“That alone brings uncertainty on production and development,” she said.

“The clause can bring uncertainty where one lives in a situation of guessing.”

Cde Zindi said there was need to address issues raised by financial institutions to make the leases bankable. “Our lease agreements have to be bankable so that we can borrow against those leases,” she said.

“There are certain issues (raised by banks) to be included on the leases so that they’re bankable.”

Meanwhile, Matabeleland South Proportional Representative MP Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga has called for the introduction of a quota system in previously marginalised areas to allow children to get access to training institutions in the region.

Misihairabwi-Mushonga said Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North had over the years not been adequately represented, particularly in institutions of higher learning.

She said equal representation was a constitutional requirement and the Constitution states that the State should provide for fair representation of all regions in all institutions and agencies of government at every level.

Misihairabwi-Mushonga said there was a tendency to distribute resources in favour of the majority, prejudicing those in the minority like the Matabeleland regions.

“Unless you create a quota system, you will not address that issue,” she said.

Some legislators felt there was no need for a quota system, but to include all Zimbabweans in institutions notwithstanding where they came from.