Seriousness called for on land issue

EDITORIAL

LAST week, during a live radio interview, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said: “The main issue we have identified is the issue of multiple farm ownership, especially among people in higher offices. For example, I know of one lady who has 16 farms: Dr Stop It.”

And before many had fully digested what he said, the Zanu PF youths, like hunting hounds answering to a master’s rallying whistle, had already sounded their “let’s grab those farms” war cry.

While it is commendable that the government is currently thoroughly auditing the country’s land, with the hope to fairly and equitably distribute this critical resource, in order to try and bring back sanity to the country’s agricultural sector, we would beg to differ with the President on what he and his colleagues
have come to conclude as the main issue afflicting Zimbabwe’s land question.

We sincerely believe that the main problem is what those who grabbed those farms during the fast-track land reform programme are doing with the land? Zanu PF youths want 15 of former First Lady Grace Mugabe’s alleged 16 farms to be compulsorily acquired by the State and given to them.

But we believe that the country’s precious land should not just be re-distributed for the sake of re-distributing it, because this is why we are now food insecure today as a nation. We have vast tracts of land that were hoarded by some selfish individuals, who are now holding the nation to ransom as year-in and year-out Zimbabwe goes hungry.

We are currently spending millions importing wheat which used to be grown in abundance on those farms that the Zanu PF youths are now so eager to get hold of.

We hope that the zeal those youths are exhibiting in wanting to repossess those farms will be extended into producing food, not only for the nation, but also
for other countries in the form of exports. From the onset, it must be made known, in no uncertain terms, what it entails to own arable land in this country.

Currently, owning a piece of land is prestigious for many people, and we implore the President to set the record straight so that whoever has land or those intending to grab some farmland, have to be serious about farming.

We hope that by the time the land audit is over, government would announce a workable plan to ensure that our precious resource is fully utilised. We desperately need in place a workable land tenure system for us to regain our long lost breadbasket status.