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allocated to beneficiaries under the fast-track land reform programme with the view of repossessing under-utilised land, Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa said.
He said the under-utilised farms would be re-allocated to other deserving Zimbabweans.
Minister Mnangagwa made the remarks while officially opening a homestead belonging to Mr Luckson Zondo at his A1 farm in Mberengwa resettlement areas on Thursday.
He said it was disheartening that there were some individuals, among them senior Government officials, who benefited under the land reform programme who were still to put up permanent structures at their farms.
The Minister said there was even no meaningful production taking place at such farms.
“While the agrarian land reform programme is over with the country moving a step further to implementing other economic empowerment drives like the indigenisation programme, it is saddening that we still have some sceptics who still think the land reform programme will be reversed,” he said.
“Since 2000, when the land programme was implemented, we have had people who are still to construct permanent structures at their farms. We are then left wondering whether such people deserve that land allocated to them.”
Minister Mnangagwa said the Government would conduct a land usage assessment exercise targeting beneficiaries who were failing to fully utilise their land.
“There are serious farmers who were allocated A1 farms who are now running out of space to expand their farming activities. On the other hand, we have some who rushed to take up pieces of land but are failing to make any meaningful production on that piece of land. The only move Government would make is to conduct a production-based audit and task local chiefs and district lands officers to identify the farmers in accordance with their category,” he said.
Minister Mnangagwa said there were some high profile politicians and Cabinet Ministers who were also failing to show commitment on their allocated land.
“It is surprising that even some Government Ministers who benefited from the land reform are yet to put up permanent structures on their land and one is left wondering whether or not such people deserve that piece of land,” he said.
Minister Mnangagwa urged both large-scale and small-scale farmers to work hard on their pieces of land to avoid food deficit in the country.
“We have heard our former colonisers sarcastically blaming the country’s food deficit on the land reform programme. While we don’t bother having low harvests in our farms as long as we now own those farms, we also need to work hard and shame our detractors through maximum utilisation of our land,” he said.
Minister Mnangagwa commended Mr Zondo and his wife, Mrs Sibonisiwe Zondo, for building a state-of the art-homestead at their A1 farm, saying such a gesture was evident that the couple was seriously committed to their farm.
“Mr Zondo is one of the many Zimbabweans to benefit under the country’s land reform programme who is showing signs of seriousness as a proud owner of the new land. The land had remained in the hands of a minority group years after Independence. Government need to allocate such people like Mr Zondo large pieces of land so that they could help improve the country’s crop yields,” he said.
Speaking at the same function, the local chief, Chief Bvute, said perennial droughts that always hit Mberengwa district needed farmers to come up with new farming mechanisms that help in the full utilisation of land.
“In Mberengwa, we have experienced many years of hunger despite the fact that we are now proud owners of the land. What we then need to do is to come up with new farming technology that will help us fully utilise this new land of ours so that we could realise bumper harvests,” he said.
Mr Zondo who also has a two-hectare piece of land under a thriving maize crop ready for harvest, appealed to the Government to extend his A1 farm.
He said this would help him realise his potential as a commercial farmer.
“At the moment my farming activities are limited by the size of my piece of land. I am appealing to Government to at least increase our piece of land to an A2 farm so that we get a bigger farming piece of land,” he said.
Online Reporter