Zimbabwean authorities have vowed to forge ahead with land seizures from white farmers who have remained on their properties after the country’s controversial land reforms.
”We are still hungry and we want all our land back and all our land to be used by our own people,” Lands Minister Didymus Mutasa said, dismissing speculation that President Robert Mugabe’s government could give in to widespread criticism and stop farm invasions which started six years ago.
”We are not going to change our land policy and we are not going to surrender any land that has been given to our people,” Mutasa said in an interview aired on state television on Thursday night.
Mutasa said that following constitutional reforms passed by Parliament last year ”there is not any white farmer now who is farming legally” and urged white farmers to seek permission from government to continue operating.
”[Constitutional] Amendment number 17 gave all land, all agricultural land to the state and by that stroke or event nobody is allowed to farm unless he has permission from the Minister of Lands,” Mutasa said.
”To my knowledge there are not many if any white commercial farmers who have the permission … so most of them who are farming now are doing so illegally.”
Following the constitutional reforms, Zimbabwe’s administrative court struck off legal appeals by farmers who were contesting the seizure of their properties.
Mutasa scoffed at suggestions by an International Monetary Fund (IMF) team to order a stop to the farm invasions.
”The IMF should advise us on monetary matters, they should leave agricultural affairs to our minister of agriculture,” he said.
Mutasa’s remarks came on the back of an appeal by the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) last week for the government to stop fresh farm invasions.
”We urge the authorities to declare a moratorium on land and current agricultural policies to rebuild the entire industry to return as the generator of food and foreign currency,” the CFU said.
Zimbabwe’s land reforms — which began often violently in 2000 after the rejection in a referendum of a government-sponsored draft Constitution — have seen about 4 000 white farmers lose their properties.
Fewer than 600 farmers remain operating on their properties, according to their union.
Critics of the land reforms — which government says were aimed a giving land to landless blacks — blame them for a plunge in agricultural output which has seen Southern Africa’s former breadbasket resorting to importing food for its people.
Aid agencies say at least four million Zimbabweans will require food aid until the next harvest in May.
The critics say the majority of the beneficiaries of the land reforms lacked farming skills and rely on government handouts.
Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono has repeatedly raised concerns over fresh invasions of horticultural and coffee farms in the east of the country.
He also accused new farmers of under-utilising their land and turning their newly-acquired farms into picnic venues. – Sapa-AFP