Leasing of land retrogressive

land in Hurungwe has become serious that it needs urgent attention and The Herald should be lauded for exposing it.
My only qualification for commenting on the article is that I am a resident of Hurungwe. I am a war veteran who participated extensively in the land occupations, sat on the district land identification committee for a year and some months and also got a piece of land to my name, courtesy of the programme.

When I read the article, I recalled reading an earlier article on the same subject last year. I was tinged with angry incredulity – you could not believe that sane persons whose land benefits had come at such a high cost to the nation could so lightly give the benefits back to the enemy.
To begin with, indeed it is a wrong practice for anyone to lease land to white former commercial farmers. I believe it is politically and socially immoral, apart from being illegal. The people who are into this practice have thrown out the mores, objectives and pathos of the land reform exercise for financial expedience without giving care to the damage it has caused to the revolution.

Today, the very whites we threw off our land are laughing at our moral emptiness and gloating over our greed, which should make us blush with shame and disbelief.
I also agree that these people should be dispossessed, and their land given to those who are not only willing to work hard on it but to defend the revolution as well. I am gratified that the first article prompted a change of the land tenure policy. In Hurungwe, the devil is in the implementation of the land policy.

Government policy is implemented through civil servants in the responsible ministry (ies), and in each administrative district, these officials are part of the DLIC that I mentioned earlier on. It is their role to advise the LIDCs on policy, and to implement decisions of the body, in line with Government policy.
Some politicians in Hurungwe set about re-possessing the offenders’ land. Landless youths were immediately instigated to invade these plots under the false promises that they would become the occupants of this land, prompting hostile media to chide Zanu-PF and Government as lawless.

These politicians used these invasions to garner political support from the youth, when they knew very well the invasions were illegal and would not benefit the youths at all. The particular politician who was behind these invasions is also a legislator who is, or should be, conversant with Government policy, but ignored this policy for cheap, harmful political expedience.
What ensued was painful to behold – our young people were bludgeoned by the riot police, chased and bitten by dogs, fired at and arrested, and still got no land at the end of the day.
We have a law in the land that we ought to adhere to and obey a law without which this beautiful country could easily become a paradise of anarchists.

Political leaders should be at the forefront of implementing the law and encouraging citizens to obey it. What this politician did is and was no better than what the warlords of Somalia do – be a law unto themselves.
The land occupations of 2000 were carried out by the youth of that day, who today are now householders, but the majority of whom are still landless.
The beneficiaries were adults, the same adults who are giving their inheritance back to the enemy. It was these same adults who distributed land to themselves back then and forgot – conveniently – to share the land with the young people of the day, while they gave hundreds of hectares of land to one another.

Only one farm out of hundreds was allocated to the youths in Hurungwe. What happened then and is still happening today, is that greedy elders and misguided, ruthless and over-ambitious politicians, are continuously exploiting the hunger of the landless youths for their own selfish ends, hence the illegal occupations of last year. These tragedies only occur in Hurungwe – “The Sick Man of Mashonaland West”.

The new land tenure policy is all good and fine, but may never be implemented in Hurungwe. Why so? The same people who are eating with the enemy are the same people on the LIDC of Hurungwe – either that or they have influence on the committee through their friends. Yes – politicians, chiefs and war veterans are into this madness, and they use their political clout to defend their actions, no matter how evil the actions.

On the other extreme are those politicians who would rather “correct” the situation by resorting to anarchy, to gain political mileage and punish perceived opponents.
The Sick Man of Mashonaland West, as Hurungwe district is now affectionately known, is a land of extremities, anarchy, deception and threats. Talk to the Ministry Of Lands’ officers here, and they will relate blood-curdling stories of threats on their lives for implementing policy, for not toeing this or that politician’s line or for not giving so-and so that piece of land.

Corruption is rife, with land changing hands for money – lots of it – to those who sit on the LIDC. Even those who should be the vanguard of this revolution – the War Veterans – are not immune to it. That is Hurungwe for you!

Another unfolding tragedy in this Sick Man is that of the politicians, chiefs and so-called sabhukus allocating land when they should not be doing so without the authority or approval of the LIDC and the Ministry of Lands. Well, even War Veterans are doing it too.

The LIDC has spun out of control, and is under the influence of the unscrupulous politicians who have given their cronies positions on it. Once more this tragedy only occurs in Hurungwe. The land is indeed sick.

It is difficult to suggest any solutions under the circumstances, because all and any who give voice to these concerns are, like Never Gasho, labelled as eccentric, or power-mongers, sell-outs to the MDC, or worse.

However, if the powers that be could give consideration to the following suggestions, maybe the Sick Man could be healed:

Re-constitute the Lands Identification Committee of Hurungwe. Those who are not authorised to sit on it should be weeded out – politicians, Members of Parliament and their cheer-leaders.

Implement this new land policy you talk about – effectively and transparently – without the involvement of the politicians of Hurungwe. They are a nest of vipers.

Right-size all plots that exceed the approved maximum farm size, which is 400 ha in Hurungwe.

Give the land to the youths. They have fought for this land, and have been abused in the process. Maybe the abuse may stop. Finally it is sad that the revolution is being subverted before it is even over.