INDIGENOUS farmers have called on government to speedily compensate white former commercial farmers in order to unlock agricultural funding
Source: Compensate white farmers: Indigenous players – NewsDay Zimbabwe August 2, 2016
BY VENERANDA LANGA
Speaking during public hearings on the proposed Land Commission Bill which began in Harare yesterday, Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers’ Union representative Jeremiah Tevera also demanded that the Land Commission must stop fresh land invasions to restore sanity in the agricultural sector.
“Issues of multiple land allocations are still happening and it rears its ugly head when farmers are preparing for the summer crop and several farmers with the same lease are fighting for land, resulting in scuttling of preparations for the next farming season,” Tevera said.
“The issue of illegal farm occupiers needs to be addressed by the commission with speed as they have led to environmental degradation and poaching,” he said.
Commercial Farmers’ Union of Zimbabwe acting director Marc Carrie Wilson said the issue of security of tenure needed to be solved to instil confidence in investors, adding Parliament must scrutinise the Bill and include people’s views before its passage.
“The Bill seems to maintain the status quo in terms of land administration, but we believe the Ministry responsible should look at other countries’ land policies and how they administer land. We also want the Land Commission to be independent from the minister as they currently seem to be subordinate.”
Wilson said the Land Commission Bill was silent on how commissioners are chosen, adding there was need for impartial and qualified people to sit in the commission.
Wildlife and Environment Zimbabwe president Isaiah Nyakusendwa said the Bill dealt a lot with issues of land disputes, but was silent on issues of wildlife conflicts where people were settling in wildlife areas, killing and poisoning animals, poaching fish and cutting down trees.
“The commission must ensure there are remedies to conflicts because when we talk of land, we also talk of environmental issues and mining,” Nyakusendwa said.
Last week, the Land Commission Bill went through the First Reading Stage in the National Assembly.
The purpose of the Land Commission will be to look at issues of allocation of rights to State land for agricultural purposes, settlement of persons on land, and it is also expected to solve land disputes among other issues. The public hearings are being conducted by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands and Agriculture and the Parliamentary Thematic Committee on Peace and Security.
COMMENTS
This saga will go on as long as Bob of the jungle lives. His jungle tactics are just that . His Zimbabwe , not ours , allows for this abuse of power. Anyway the once useless school teacher or little man has proven his Napolean tendencies . The little man syndrome. In the process of acting big , he has done the inevitable. Destroy the country , it’s history etc and start again albeit without the Whites. His racist attitude and small time thinking is steeped in the idea that he can reinvent things . Further in the same plane , whites must also try along with other races to play ball and take part in the country,s affairs. By not doing anything Bob will and is getting away with murder.
Why don’t the ‘indigenous players’ compensate the white farmers? On what logical basis should the ‘indigenous players’ get something for nothing? Or is it part of Zimbabweans’ rich cultural heritage?
How does one compensate a dead white farmer?
Now let me get this right. Zanu Pf beneficiaries of free land grab have had 14 yrs to farm on developed farms with all equipment and government loans,inputs,and more government equipment courtesy of the tax payer. They now want the government ie tax payer ( bankrupt) to compensate the ex professional white farmers,so that they can get new loans from the western international banks ,so that they can carry on subsistence farming and start a new round of never paying back debts. Have Zimbabwians gone mad?
The people who were “given” farms not belonging to them should rightly pay the legal owners. To me that is common sense.
Lets get this in perspective. The problems the country now faces are a direct result on the ‘land grab’. The beneficiaries are guilty of theft or receiving stolen property. The GOZ has no hope of paying for something which in hindsight they never intended to pay for. They have attempted legalised theft and are falling short – with or without Professor Schoones’ propaganda. The world financial institutions will not lend money them whilst they are on this track and they can not fool the people any longer. I get more and more ordinary citizens saying ‘ you white guys must go back to the farms’ on almost a daily basis. The man in the street realises the racist injustice and persecution of fellow Zimbabweans.
The solution to the current economic situation is to listen to the man on the street and get the farmers back. Restore their property rights and compensate them for their losses (and damage to the farms) a lump sum of US$500 000 each – which is a fraction of the compensation awarded in The Hague, SADCC Tribunal and South African courts and which is now unaffordable to the country. The farmers are Zimbabwean citizens. Put this issue right and the country will recover in as little as 24 months. The world will funds such a programme as it is the cheapest option to getting Zimbabwe back on its feet. Put simply, the farmers would employ people and buy inputs. The employees would spend their wages, the suppliers stock more and employ more people. Those people would spend and pay VAT and PAYE and so it goes. The nation benefits and the 2.2million jobs delivered by simply restoring the rights of 4500 Zimbabweans AND ZIMBABWE TAKES ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE AS THE BREAD BASKET OF AFRICA and an inspiration to good governance. Is that asking too much?