Tsvangirai vows to fix Mugabe's land reform disaster

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says as poorly-executed as the country's fast- track land reforms of 2000 were, he will not reverse them if he wins the eagerly-anticipated 2018 national elections.

Speaking to the Daily News in an exclusive interview yesterday, the former prime minister in the Government of National Unity said what he would do would be to work hard to promote agricultural production so that the country's new farmers could become successful employers, in addition to feeding the nation and exporting their produce.

Tsvangirai was emphatic that the land reforms that President Robert Mugabe had presided over had so far only brought misery to Zimbabweans - a disaster that his envisaged grand plan would mitigate, leading to higher production.

"The criticism we have is that government has not trained people to fully utilise the farms. It has also not equipped them adequately. I want to emphasise to Zimbabweans and anyone who believes that the MDC is going to reverse the land reform programme that this is mere Zanu-PF propaganda which has no basis whatsoever," he said.

The veteran politician, who defeated Mugabe hands down in the 2008 elections, said long before Zanu-PF expediently started to harp on about the need for land reforms, he and other colleagues in the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) had been pushing for such a programme, with no buy-in from the ruling party at the time.

"We were the first to say land to the people, not the politicians because we were opposed to the status quo.

"At the time, Zanu-PF had gone for years without dealing with this and when they finally dealt with it, all Zimbabweans agree that the manner in which this was conducted was problematic.

"It was both partisan and violent and did not ensure production. There was seemingly no appreciation that agriculture is the backbone of the economy and that if you destroy it you are therefore destroying the country," Tsvangirai said.

At its peak, agriculture used to contribute 30 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) but is now contributing less than five percent - with Mugabe and Zanu-PF widely blamed for the destruction of the sector and the country's economy as a whole to perpetuate their misrule.

While the country also used to be the bread-basket of southern Africa before the chaotic land reforms, it is now a much-derided basket case that imports grain from neighbouring countries such as Zambia and South Africa.

And amid claims that many Zanu-PF bigwigs are multiple farm owners, Tsvangirai said he would initiate "a fresh and comprehensive" audit of land ownership in the country if he won the 2018 polls.

"Our policy is one man one farm, and there is no doubt that the audit will reveal multiple land ownership by the chefs. If they (Zanu-PF) were sincere, they should have revealed those with multiple farms.

"I do not know how true the claim is that Mugabe has seven farms, but if you combine his farms and that of his wife how many are that? That is the criticism we have for the system. A family should have one farm and we should have equitable land redistribution," he said.

Tsvangirai, who has no farm, also dismissed as "alarmist falsehoods" claims by Zanu-PF that disposed white commercial farmers had allegedly hovered around their former farms in 2008 when they saw that the MDC leader had defeated Mugabe in that year's elections.

"It was never and still isn't our policy to reverse the land reform programme. Whites know that they need to share ... But I also want to assure all Zimbabweans that there is a place for everyone, even white farmers.

"We truly believe that land reform can be a powerful empowerment tool which should give people the opportunity to own land and have a market for their produce. This is why and how we are going to increase productivity on farms," he said.

"What I saw when I was coming from my rural home at the weekend saddened me deeply.. During this time of the year, areas around Beatrice used to be green with healthy crops, but now the farms look like abandoned war zones.

"It's sad beyond words that the beneficiaries of the land reform programme are now rushing for handouts from NGOs (non-governmental organisations), and yet they are supposed to produce the food we all need.

"This is what we want to correct and the plan is already there. This is simple work. In my rural home, I do drip irrigation and if we promote drip agriculture around the country, including for the peasant farmers, how much maize tonnage, for example, will we have at the end of the year?

"The Zanu-PF government has failed dismally and we will lift agriculture back to its former glory because it is the backbone of the economy," Tsvangirai said.