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Cde Chombo urged the people of Zvimba District to prepare for elections that may be called for anytime next year.
Addressing farmers from Zvimba District at Banket Country Club over the weekend, Cde Chombo, who is also the Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister, said invading farms would not empower anyone. He said some youths in the province were invading farms allocated to new farmers arguing it was part of the empowerment drive.
“You cannot be empowered by farm invasions. If you want land, come forward and we will allocate you. No Zanu-PF youths should invade farms,” he said.
Cde Chombo rapped what he said was a growing tendency in the province where some white commercial farmers were hiring out some youths and bogus war veterans to protect them against the acquisition of land for resettlement purposes.
“Only the law will defend you. The land reform is irreversible,” Dr Chombo said in an appeal to the farmers to approach the relevant authorities in the event they were not satisfied with the developments.
Some of the hired youths and war veterans have been involved in skirmishes with new farmers in possession of genuine offer letters. He criticised the hiring of former farm workers by some white former farmers to disrupt farming operations through veld fires, stealing from new farmers and general chaos in the province.
Cde Chombo said farmers should have a uniform method of paying workers to guard against abuse of farm workers amid reports that some farmers were paying in kind with food. The payment discrepancy has seen some workers opting to do part-time jobs on neighbouring farms. He said former farmers whose farms were gazetted for acquisition should vacate the farms unless they were issued with offer letters for parts of the farms.
“Unless you were given offer letters, former farmers should vacate. You may go to court to contest the acquisition but you cannot contest our desire to take the land. You may win on technicalities but that win is an empty win,” he said.
On elections, Cde Chombo urged all the farmers in the district to mobilise their workers and family members to vote for Zanu-PF.
“We have a referendum next year. Let us win the referendum and the general elections that will follow. We are in campaign mode now,” he said. He said Zanu-PF would be holding campaign meetings on the farms and expects the farmers to be members of the party cells.
“If you benefited from the land reform exercise you are Zanu-PF. The land reform exercise is solely a Zanu-PF initiative,” he said.
Online Reporter