adminWalter Mswazie Masvingo Correspondent
MORE than 100 people who were resettled on Tongaat Hulett sugarcane estates in Chiredzi will be allocated alternative land elsewhere in a bid to save jobs at the company.
The farmers, who include some chiefs in Masvingo, recently received offer letters from the Lands and Rural Resettlement Ministry for sugarcane plots in the Lowveld, but workers’ unions expressed fears that about 2 000 people might end up losing their jobs due to the company’s loss of land.
Acting Zanu-PF Masvingo provincial chairman Cde Amassa Nhenjana said President Mugabe has since ordered that people who were allocated land at the estates be resettled on land under the Development Trust of Zimbabwe (DTZ) in Mwenezi and Chiredzi.
“We had a provincial executive committee meeting on Saturday at Masvingo Polytechnic where we discussed many things to strengthen the party. We resolved that we should follow what the President and First Secretary of the party Cde Robert Mugabe has ordered with regards to Tongaat Hulett sugarcane farms.
“He has ordered those 100 or so people who received offer letters to find alternative land under DTZ and not disturb operations at Tongaat Hulett,” said Cde Nhenjana.
President Mugabe was in Chiredzi recently to meet the Masvingo provincial leadership, MPs and chiefs in a bid to address several issues in the province that include factionalism, corruption in allocation of sugarcane farms and nepotism among others.
A follow up meeting was also held in Harare.
Cde Nhenjana said that while Tongaat Hulett has the prerogative to allocate land to people under its out-grower scheme, it is not the aim of the party to deprive workers of their livelihoods.
“We feel that the workers at Tongaat Hulett are Zimbabweans and part of our electorate who should not be deprived of employment. We salute the stance taken by President Mugabe as Masvingo. There is plenty of idle land which people can occupy in place of Tongaat Hulett sugarcane farms,” he said.
Online Reporter