Uproar as Mnangagwa promises to give back land to white farmers

Zimbabweans on social media have accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government of reversing the gains of Independence promising to give some white farmers land.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube on Monday said the government was  returning land to foreign white farmers through what Zimbabwe calls a Global Compensation Deed.

Majority of the farms to be returned are meant to be protected by Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreements (BIPPAs) and owned by nationals of the US, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Australia and South Africa

The ministry of lands in a joint statement with the finance ministry said they were moving forward with restoration of title to the pieces of agricultural land and would in the appropriate circumstances, revoke the offer letters of resettled farmers currently occupying those pieces of land and offer them alternative land elsewhere.

I never thought I will live long enough to see the party of Eddison Zvobgo running a programme of giving black people 99-year land leases while offering title deeds for white people. Give us a signal @Julius_S_Malema.

— Discent Bajila (@DCBajila) August 31, 2020

Here below we publish reactions from Norton Member of Parliament Temba Mliswa and Political Analyst Alex Magaisa.

Temba Mliswa

This is a treacherous document! I've read the key points as highlighted. It's treacherous to the people who fought for this country, the WarVets etc. Those who fought & died for this country will turn in their graves. Govt must be clear, who are they trying to appease? It's a dangerous weapon for the opposition if it's not addressed. The wording supports a removal of people from the farms they were given, as the ruling party, ZANU PF can you elucidate?

I don't understand why Govt would talk of production failure when resources are scarce. Hence the introduction of schemes like Command Agriculture. When resources were available, farmers produced more and delivered to national reserves and food security, rainfall patterns were poor too

For Govt to issue a blanket statement saying farmers have failed is incorrect. Have you resourced them, has the weather been kind? Agritex officers have too suffered from lack of resources. It needs a multi-pronged approach.

The land bank is just being launched, let's give it & the farmers a chance. Why shouldn't farmers have title deeds to enable them to use them as collateral for funding? If it's State land, then the State must fund the farmers. We need to be clear on this.

You can't sacrifice the majority to appease a few. This is a debate that has to be brought before Parly as provided for in section 295 of the Constitution

Ministry of Finance is the same Ministry which removed Indigenisation, another great empowerment initiative. Land reform& Indigenisation were broad based programmes aimed at majority empowerment. WarVets should have an Indaba on this for greater understanding they deserve to be heard.

Alex Magaisa

ZANU spent years hoodwinking people that land reform was irreversible; that it would never pay compensation for land. We told them they were lying. Now they have gone a step further than compensation, they are returning the actual land. Imagine the fuss all along & the waste.

This will spark another controversial chapter, with those who thought they were comfortably resettled being removed to make way for the return of the farmers. And there you had ZANU for years lying to everyone "MDC inoda kudzorera ivhu kuvarungu". Here we are.

I'm waiting for all those who mocked us for the past 20 years when we told them it would come to this. They were so vociferous in their arguments to the point of abuse, when we said this would not end well. Now here we are, ZANU is returning the land. Did I hear "revolution"?

Commenting on the developments Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said, "We have Black Zimbabweans who bought farms and these were acquired without full compensation. These are not covered by the global compensation agreement signed on the 29th. These are the ones if it's possible to give them back the farms they will get.

"Then we also have those who had farms under bilateral agreements they are treated as if they are black farmers. Then we have very productive white farmers whose farms were acquired but are still on the land. These we are saying subject to them applying they can be given land."