“Zimbabwe’s New Farm Policy A Reversal Of Land Reform”

Zimbabwe’s ruling elite and the politically connected may be attempting to sell land acquired during the land reform programme at no cost, following the government’s announcement of a new model allowing beneficiaries to sell their land, according to a former cabinet minister.

The chaotic fast-track land reform programme began at the turn of the millennium when former independence fighters invaded approximately 4,000 farms owned by white farmers.

This led to the politically connected and their families seizing vast tracts of land, with some occupying multiple farms.

On Tuesday, the government announced that beneficiaries of the programme could sell or transfer their farms, but only to “indigenous Zimbabweans.”

In an interview with NewsDay, self-exiled former Foreign Affairs Minister Walter Mzembi described the process as opaque, suggesting that those with political connections stand to profit. He said:

It is the biggest heist by this class since independence driven by policy itself and done under very opaque processes with no constitutional provisions compliance, consent from the people (referendum), audits, compliance with one family one farm, maximum land sizes and just waking up bestowing title to a replacement black bourgeoisie whose criteria to land ownership only God knows and boom cash out.

It is a policy reversal of the land reform programme as originally envisaged.

There will be numerous, in fact, hundreds of ‘black fronted’ land ownership transactions by former occupiers and foreigners, as much as there is leased farming by the same today.

It is a free ride by our own elite, with no Bill to the elite beneficiaries (zero rate) and titling their unverified, unaudited, no-trespass acquisitions.

Currently, some beneficiaries of the land reform programme are not producing anything on their farms; instead, they are leasing the land to landless farmers who were unable to benefit from the programme.

These beneficiaries are collecting rent from these farmers, despite having received the land at no cost from the government.

More: Pindula News

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Land Reform “Irreversible”, But 67 BIPPA Farms To Be Returned – Minister Masuka Zimbabwe Says 93 Expropriated White-owned Farms Have Been Compensated