admin
Walter Nyamukondiwa Chinhoyi Bureau
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe says he is aware that some government ministers are sub-letting farms they acquired under the land reform to former white commercial farmers, while some chiefs are illegally settling people, causing overcrowding in farming areas.Speaking at the launch and handover of A1 settlement permits at Chifundi Farm in Mhangura, Mashonaland West Province yesterday, President Mugabe said the government ministers should lead by example and warned that action would be taken against those who broke the law.
At least 79 A1 farmers at Chifundi and Emily Park farms were handed the A1 permits by the President which should be acceptable as collateral by money lenders.
President Mugabe said the government ministers and others who were in the habit of either sub-leasing land, renting it out or holding onto the farms for prestige and using them for weekend retreats would lose them to others on the waiting list.
President Mugabe said the A1 settlement permits would be issued to only those who were productive and had infrastructural developments on the farms.
“If there are those who still believe that the land they acquired was to afford them places to visit over weekends for braais and picnic parties, or for prestige or as places for interment when they pass on, then surely these will, sooner than later, lose the farms allocated to them,” he said.
“We’re aware that some have either abandoned land allocated to them without having constructed any buildings thereon; others have sub-leased the land, or surrendered it to individuals for lease rentals which are a pittance.
“What annoys us even more is where our own indigenous farmers sub-lease to the very same white farmers we took our heritage from yesterday.”
President Mugabe said such behaviour was deplorable and a slap in the face for empowerment efforts being made by the government.
He said the land came as a result of sacrifices by Zimbabweans, both living and dead, including icons such as the late Vice-Presidents Dr Joshua Nkomo, Dr Simon Muzenda, Joseph Msika and John Landa Nkomo.
“Every Zimbabwean must have a piece of land where they say this is mine, no matter how small,” the President said. “Land is precious. You heard the Vice President [Joice Mujuru] say that huge sacrifices were made to get this land. There are those who were with us [during the war] who know the suffering we went through. So, let’s not play with the land.
“We’ve today given you these permits. We don’t want to hear stories tomorrow that you’ve gone and looked for a white man or some other person in Harare and asked them to come and take over the farm. That’s not allowed.”
President Mugabe called on traditional leaders to desist from giving out land without following laid down procedures and in some cases selling it to desperate land seekers.
He said there had been an outcry, particularly in Mashonaland West Province, that many white farmers still remained on the land targeted for resettlement under the protection of top government and party officials.
President Mugabe said provincial chairman Cde Temba Mliswa had briefed him that more white farmers remained and were holding onto the land with the blessings of some government ministers and chiefs.
“Some are said to be in the constituencies of senior government officials. How then do we explain this, Cdes? We fought these people; we can’t be soft on them when it comes to land. We’ve not chased them away from this country — they’re there in the industries, in the cities.
They’ve their flats where they live. They’ve companies, fine. They should abide by our laws. But here, on people’s land, we say ‘No!’”
The President added: “So, I’m saying to those among us who are guilty (of leasing land), some I’m told are my ministers who’re refusing to remove those whites in their constituencies, we say ‘No’. Why do you need them?
“We should, as leaders, demonstrate to the rest of our people that those things we’re asking them to do on the land, we’re doing them ourselves. Let’s assist each other on this matter.”
President Mugabe said he had also been briefed that chiefs were also in on the leasing act, and asked Chief Fortune Charumbira, head of the Chiefs’ Council, to warn his colleagues as they risked being prosecuted for protecting white farmers and other illegal land practices.
President Mugabe said the government wanted to build a strong economy and to better the lives of its people, and the leadership should be exemplary.
He said the A1 resettlement permits were a seal on the land reform programme to complement the 99-year leases launched in November 2006 in a bid to securitise the land and give beneficiaries security of tenure on the farms.
“Following the successful implementation of our land reform programme, today’s event is appropriately akin to putting the icing on the cake,” he said.
“Today, we indeed celebrate the emancipation and empowerment of our people as we unveil the A1 settlement permits.”
President Mugabe said the permits for the A1 farmers and leases for A2 farms were a shield against Western machinations to reverse the land reform by funding the MDC.
He chronicled the long road Zimbabwe had travelled in a bid to regain its land, saying the journey had been marked by untenable laws and international isolation at the behest of Britain that roped in the EU and America under the guise of fighting for human rights.
President Mugabe said Britain had tried all dirty tricks to frustrate the process, but the country remained resolute and the permits were an assertion of the ownership of land by indigenous people.
Farmers, the President said, would now be able to borrow money from banks using the permits as collateral.
He said to those with large tracts of land, time will come when the land will have to be sub-divided owing to demand for land as the population grew.
This, he said, would have to be done in an orderly manner following proper procedures, saying self-allocation of land would never be tolerated.
Speaking at the same occasion, Vice-President Mujuru said the A1 permits represented a milestone in the struggle for land in Zimbabwe, saying the country’s economic blueprint, Zim-Asset, was anchored on land.
“You can’t plan life without the land,” she said. “Our livelihoods depend on the land. So, we can’t talk about Zim-Asset without the land.
The permits are a seal of our wealth as a nation.”
Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora said the A1 permits were not transferrable and violation would lead to them being withdrawn.
Online Reporter