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MP condemns taking of farms from Ndau people to give them to individual whites
06 Feb 2016 at 09:00hrs | Views
MDC Prosper Chapfiwa Mutseyami has condemned the government for taking some farms which were owned by some Ndau peolple and giving them to individual white farmers.
"Government also talked about the green fuel which is coming from Chisumbanje and we have cane fields in that area also. The farmer is Billy Rautenbach who works together with the Government. In that programme, Government gets 10% and Billy Rautenbach gets 90%. I remember from 2000, Zanu PF came up with a policy, land to the people and we are the people they were talking about, the black indigenous who were supposed to benefit from that," he said.
"As I speak about Billy Rautenbach, one white person and I am talking about the farms which were farmed by the Ndau people and these were confiscated from them. This was their livelihood and they are being given to one white man Rautenbach."
He said their fields and land were forcibly confiscated from them because there were armed uniformed police who were chasing these people of the Ndau tribe and 42 thousand hectares of land was taken from them and the indigenous were asked to go away.
"We are paying lip service to the indigenisation of land. These people who were farming in these areas used to grow cotton and maize in the 1980s but some 35 years later, these people are being deprived of their land. They are being encouraged to work for this one white man as cane cutters and as cane crushers and this white man is working together with the Government. The people of the Ndau origin are in problems, they are crammed in small pieces of land that is given to them," he said.
He said President Robert Mugabe also discussed corruption in his speech. Regarding corruption, let me look at the aspects which were taken by His Excellency.
"We know we have established an Anti-Corruption Commission because His Excellency has seen that there are some loopholes and some weaknesses which need to be curbed. We know the former Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Ignatias Chombo; when he was going through his divorce process with his first wife Miriam, we were told that he had lots of residential stands in almost every local authority and township in this country," he said.
"He has commercial, residential and industrial stands. Hon. members, even if we are Mr. Moneybags, can you afford to buy all those pieces of land in every town? My feeling is that the President was not supposed to talk about anti-corruption but this person was supposed to be arrested and taken to solitary confinement and made to confess where he got all the monies to buy all those properties."
"Government also talked about the green fuel which is coming from Chisumbanje and we have cane fields in that area also. The farmer is Billy Rautenbach who works together with the Government. In that programme, Government gets 10% and Billy Rautenbach gets 90%. I remember from 2000, Zanu PF came up with a policy, land to the people and we are the people they were talking about, the black indigenous who were supposed to benefit from that," he said.
"As I speak about Billy Rautenbach, one white person and I am talking about the farms which were farmed by the Ndau people and these were confiscated from them. This was their livelihood and they are being given to one white man Rautenbach."
He said their fields and land were forcibly confiscated from them because there were armed uniformed police who were chasing these people of the Ndau tribe and 42 thousand hectares of land was taken from them and the indigenous were asked to go away.
"We are paying lip service to the indigenisation of land. These people who were farming in these areas used to grow cotton and maize in the 1980s but some 35 years later, these people are being deprived of their land. They are being encouraged to work for this one white man as cane cutters and as cane crushers and this white man is working together with the Government. The people of the Ndau origin are in problems, they are crammed in small pieces of land that is given to them," he said.
He said President Robert Mugabe also discussed corruption in his speech. Regarding corruption, let me look at the aspects which were taken by His Excellency.
"We know we have established an Anti-Corruption Commission because His Excellency has seen that there are some loopholes and some weaknesses which need to be curbed. We know the former Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Ignatias Chombo; when he was going through his divorce process with his first wife Miriam, we were told that he had lots of residential stands in almost every local authority and township in this country," he said.
"He has commercial, residential and industrial stands. Hon. members, even if we are Mr. Moneybags, can you afford to buy all those pieces of land in every town? My feeling is that the President was not supposed to talk about anti-corruption but this person was supposed to be arrested and taken to solitary confinement and made to confess where he got all the monies to buy all those properties."
Source - Byo24News
