Mugabe withdraws A1 offer letters

More than 220 000 offer letters issued in the past 15 years to A1 model new farmers are set to be nullified and replaced by new tenure permits to be launched by President Robert Mugabe later this week.

Minister of Lands and Resettlement Douglas Mombeshora told journalists at a press briefing ahead of the launch that the new permits will allow new farmers to access agricultural funding from financial institutions “if the banks see it fit”.

Mugabe will launch the Model A1 Settlement Permit at Chipfundi Farm Lions’ Den in Mashonaland West.

According to Mombeshora the new permit will replace the letters or documents that where being issued by district administrators which he said were not systematic.

“We did not have a uniform document and that created problems. The one that we are now issuing will be signed by the beneficiary who can use it to borrow for agricultural purposes. I cannot say though whether our financial institutions will offer funding because what we have done is to create a tenure document that confirms ownership for an unlimited time.

“The beneficiaries can use improvements on the plot and the improvements will also be paid for in the event of a cancellation or the beneficiary opting out of the land,” he said.

He explained that cancellation will only happen if beneficiaries’ violet the terms of the permit issued under the Agricultural Land Resettlement Act Chapter (20:01) in conjunction with Statutory Instrument 53 of 2014.

“Breaches to the permit such as sub-letting, allowing the agricultural land or pastoral operations to decline to unacceptable levels or abandonment will result in the permit being cancelled but we will issue a 90 day notice in which the beneficiary can provide representations on why we should not cancel”.

He added that the permits can be inherited and women have a right to own land and will also be given the new tenure document.

The land reform exercise has been dogged by reports of multiple land ownership for speculative purposes. Critics have also pressured government to issue bankable title deeds to new land owners but this has been shot down vehemently.

Mombeshora said the land redistribution exercise despite its shortcomings has been the most successful black economic empowerment programme carried out in Zimbabwe thus far.

“It is by far the most successful and we need to be cognisant of the fact that there was bound to be teething problems such as a dip in production levels.

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