Amid an aura of calculated menace, Joel Biggie Matiza, State minister for Mashonaland East, announced today government’s intention to press ahead with plans to seize Zimbabwe’s remaining white-owned commercial farms.
“We have invited all the chiefs in the province to this ceremony where we are honouring the chiefs by returning land to the ancestor and rightful custodians,” Matiza said.
“In this province, we were protecting the very people who yesteryear were our erstwhile oppressors.”
Matiza was speaking in Marondera during the hand-over of A2 offer letters to 19 of the province’s 33 chiefs.
“This event is going to give a fresh outlook and perception in the way the land reform is going to be conducted in the province,” he said.
“Freshly mandated from a cultural perspective, the province will conduct an orderly programme of land allocation. Chiefs, youths, war veterans, detainees, women, civil servants, diplomatic service and ordinary people will be considered.
“The white farmers who are carrying out farming activities on gazetted land will not be tolerated as it is illegal in terms of the laws of the country. Farms that exceed the recommended sizes will also be down sized starting February so that their sizes comply with government legal requirement on maximum size.”
The chiefs got between 60 to 80 hectares of land. According to Matiza, the province has over 20 000 people on the waiting list.
Only white commercial farmers into dairy and cattle breeding or those who openly support Zanu PF will be spared.
“The remaining letters will be ready in a week after we withdraw from those occupying your land including whites appearing in our system,” he said.
“We are not racists because there are whites who are here because they have complied with our policies in line with the President’s expectations to spare those into breeding and dairy farming,” Lands minister Douglas Mombeshora said.
Chief Musarurwa welcomed the development and appealed to government to set up a revolving fund for chiefs.
Fortune Charumbira, the Chiefs Council president, lauded Matiza and blamed former Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa for denying them land.
“I am happy although it is 34 years late,” he said. “Mutasa was the minister for lands and security and had more than enough powers to give us land but instead he said he also wants to be a chief. Aaah how many offices do you want?” – Daily News
One Reply to “Remaining White-Owned Farms Seizure Imminent”
Comments are closed.
You are racists! In the extreme. Watch as Zimbabwe goes down, down, down! You have slain your people and destroyed your land. Do you think that God does not see every intent of your hearts? Instead of building a nation you divide and spread racism, tribalism and hatred. I am sad for you. I am sad for my nation! May God have mercy upon us. What do you want from a white farmers who are in partnership. do you want them to do ALL the work, put in ALL the money and then give the land owner ALL the profit. I think maybe all white farmers, who only want to get on and do their job, feed their nation and be a part of Zimbabwe should just pack up and leave farming and do something else. maybe the land that has sat idle for 15 years will just spring into life on its own and feed our starving children. It is a very sad day when a government says because you are white you cannot feed my child. it does not matter he/or she is starving but you cannot feed my child. I am sorry but such thinking and such actions are beyond me.