President Emmerson Mnangagwa congratulating Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Air Marshal Perrance Shiri after the swearing-in ceremony at state house recently. Picture by John Manzongo
Elita Chikwati Senior Agriculture Reporter
Government has ordered illegally resettled farmers to vacate the land immediately or face the wrath of the law. Briefing journalists after a meeting with Ministers of State for Provincial Affairs at his offices in Harare yesterday, Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Air Marshal Perrance Shiri (Rtd) warned officials from his ministry to desist from engaging in corrupt activities when issuing out land, as this was a crime that attracted a jail term.
The meeting was meant to come up with a clear, uniform and consistent response to issues pertaining to land tenure and agriculture.
“If we are to meet the goals set out by Government to use agriculture as the mainstay of the economy, we need to ensure unquestionable sanity on the farms. To achieve that, the Zimbabwe Land Commission shall be seized with the responsibility of settling land disputes emanating from resettled farmers and shall report to the Minister from time to time. Constitutionalism should be the guiding principle and as such behaviour and actions not conforming to this are not permissible under whatever circumstances. Only those people with documentation of land occupancy and or those who were allocated land legitimately should remain on the farms and concentrate on production unhindered. All those who were illegally settled or who just settled themselves on resettlement land should vacate immediately,” said Air Marshal Shiri (Rtd).