News / National
Ministry of Lands to audit farms
12 Jun 2014 at 18:09hrs | Views
The Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement says it is ready to carry out a land audit to flush out multiple farm owners and stamp out corruption in all its forms as soon as the required US$35 million is made available for the process.
There have been reports of multiple farm ownership and corruption in land allocation resulting in some farms not being utilised.
Addressing 25 senior officers from the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, the police, the Ministry of Finance and the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services at the Zimbabwe Defence College, the Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, Dr Douglas Mombeshora, said his ministry has submitted a bid for US$35 million for the audit.
He said his ministry needs to collect more information on allocated land as there are a lot of anomalies such as people under the age of 21 owning farms contrary to government policy.
"While some quarters view the audit as a way to flush out multiple farm owners, the ministry considers the positive objective of such an audit. The audit will assist identify vacant land for reallocation to deserving applicants," he said.
Mombeshora said a number of land officers, among them district land officers for Makonde, Kadoma, Zvimba and Manicaland, have been imprisoned, while others have been taken for questioning.
He said his ministry has given a directive that land allocation has to be done by a committee of 10 or more people.
"We have in place a number of strategies to reduce corruption already a number of officers implicated are in prison.
"But we have said no single individual can allocate land but it has to be done by a group of people."
Zimbabwe has acquired over 14 million hectares of land out of the 15,5 million of land once owned by white commercial farmers.
300 thousand households have been resettled on this land.
There have been reports of multiple farm ownership and corruption in land allocation resulting in some farms not being utilised.
Addressing 25 senior officers from the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, the police, the Ministry of Finance and the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services at the Zimbabwe Defence College, the Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, Dr Douglas Mombeshora, said his ministry has submitted a bid for US$35 million for the audit.
He said his ministry needs to collect more information on allocated land as there are a lot of anomalies such as people under the age of 21 owning farms contrary to government policy.
"While some quarters view the audit as a way to flush out multiple farm owners, the ministry considers the positive objective of such an audit. The audit will assist identify vacant land for reallocation to deserving applicants," he said.
Mombeshora said a number of land officers, among them district land officers for Makonde, Kadoma, Zvimba and Manicaland, have been imprisoned, while others have been taken for questioning.
He said his ministry has given a directive that land allocation has to be done by a committee of 10 or more people.
"We have in place a number of strategies to reduce corruption already a number of officers implicated are in prison.
"But we have said no single individual can allocate land but it has to be done by a group of people."
Zimbabwe has acquired over 14 million hectares of land out of the 15,5 million of land once owned by white commercial farmers.
300 thousand households have been resettled on this land.
Source - zbc
