Source: FULL TEXT- Mnangagwa Cancels Mugabe’s Land Reform Program | ZimEye
Below is the full state text following President Emmerson Mnangagwa cancelling of former President Robert Mugabe’s cancerous and chaotic land reform program. The development has seen white farmers being treated on equal level with their black counterpart.
The development also follows a ZimEye.com series profiling the business side of Emmerson Mnangagwa which reveals how the new government has implemented a breakthrough farming technology set to bring billions annually to the economy. (click here to read more).
FULL TEXT:
Government has directed that all remaining white commercial farmers be issued with 99-year leases, a marked policy shift from the previous arrangement where they could only get five-year leases.
The directive is in line with President Mnangagwa’s policy position as enunciated in his inauguration address on November 24 last year when he called for the restoration of confidence in the agriculture sector.
In a recent statement to eight acting provincial resettlement officers, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement said all remaining white commercial farmers should be issued with 99-year leases with immediate effect.
“Please be informed that the Minister Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement has directed that all remaining white commercial farmers be issued 99-year leases instead of the five-year leases as per the previous arrangement,” reads the statement.
When contacted for comment, Permanent Secretary in the ministry Mr Ringson Chitsiko referred The Herald to the statement.
However, Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) director Mr Ben Giplin said though they haven’t received the official communication yet, they welcome the development.
“We have seen the communication but we are yet to receive any formal communication, but it would be a welcome development. Whilst we are very encouraged, we want to see more clarity on what will happen to those farmers that are still on the farms but had not yet received offer letters because at the moment, there is only a small number that have them. We would also want to know what will happen to those farmers who are still interested to go back to farming,” Mr Giplin.
He said there were approximately 200 white commercial farmers still farming countrywide.
President Mnangagwa has since pronounced that white former commercial farmers willing to come back were free to do so, but had to apply for land like anyone else.
While the new administration has reiterated the need to compensate white former commercial farmers, it has also moved in to enforce a ban on new illegal farm occupations.
COMMENTS
People are closely watching you on this Mr Mnangagwa. Yes some of the land has to be allocated to serious investors including white Zimbabweans. But some prime land has to be reserved for blacks, it’s their land, their patrimony full stop. If you sell out on land for a few biscuits or dollars you would have condemned our children and generations to eternal slavery in their own country. Who will liberate them for second time? Did we endure all these sanctions for nothing? I hope wisdom not foolishness will guide you on land. Your blessing or curse hinge on land issue.W cannot be treated like those broiler chicken- to be fed and owned by some other people.
To treat white Zimbabweans as not equal to black Zimbabweans is inherently racist and cannot be sustained. Race is an accident of birth and not a choice. White Zimbabweans have as much right to own farms as black Zimbabweans. I hope Mnangagwa understands this because there are some Zimbabweans like Jonsina and the brute Mugabe who don’t. They need to be told in no uncertain terms that mode of thinking is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
Jonsina….. You my friend, are a prime ignoramus. 38 years after Independence you are still talking about “black and white / this is our land and not theirs”, get over yourself. The real “owners” (if you want to go this route) are the San / Bushman / Koisan people. They were her long before the Bantu arrived from the North of Africa. The white man met the San in the Cape long before they met the Bantu in the interior of South Africa – go and read up on our history.
What good is land, if you don’t know how to fully utilise it…? I am not a farmer, so what would I do with a large chunk of land? Majority of our fellow citizens want to live in the cities. Let those who are truly passionate about farming have the land (black or white). I have said this before, and I will say it again…. Culture & tradition are the ENEMY of progress.
You need to wake up and smell the coffee. If you have an issue with the fact that the food that you are putting on the table for breakfast / lunch / supper was grown / raised by a white man, then I feel extremely sorry for you and your family.
It is time we got past this whole colour thing. Before Mad Bob started all the issues in 2000, Zimbabwe was known as a shining example of how different races could intermingle and associate with each other.
I truly hope the country of my birth can become like that again.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Looking now a few months after the ‘coup’ you must seriously consider, “What was Mugabe up to”. Clearly new minds now have come to the conclusion exactly as has been advised for years that the Mugabe model just does not work. I agree with the sentiments that farmers are farmers and what good is land if its not producing the very thing you need – food.
I think these posts and others now illustrate how foolish that man was, he does not seem to have had any idea about running anything – Expect of course his own bank balance and teaching others (he was I believe of that calling) to do the same. It may well be that finding the job of running the country too much, he went for plan B ….Grab as much as you can for youslef and your friends then get the hell out of it through death or a moonlight flit, but he always waited for the next days pay check!. You must now rid yourselves of this mans prejudice and partisan system – move forward and get yourselves ‘together’. There are other types of slavery then the one most quoted. You are in fact because of him slaves, you are Banko, Hungry, Despised, Not trusted. These can be worse shackles in the present century than manacles.