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'Reallocation of land won't remove sanctions'

by Daniel Itai, Harare, Zimbabwe
07 Sep 2020 at 10:46hrs | Views
Various political figures have castigated the move taken by the government in reallocating land to some white commercial farmers who lost their farms during the land reform program in the early 2000s.

The move which the government has since argued is meant to assist in the removal of sanctions has been reprimanded by many political figures.

"The land reallocation and reimbursement proposal cannot be a sanction removal gambit. The concealed reality is that the announcement of land transfer and compensation pronouncement is premised on the sanctions ambit, it is done to dangle a carrot to the international community and global development agencies.

However, let me put this on record, sanctions in Zimbabwe are consequence of a myriad of governance and social injustice issues therefore, these land gimmicks are not enough to deactivate sanctions," said Sydicks Muradzikwa, a political analyst.

Zimbabwe First (ZimFirst) leader, Dr. Maxwell Rusike-Shumba also called down the move taken by the government.

"Sanctions on Zimbabwe are tied on issues of governance. Zimbabweans are more afraid now than during the Mugabe era. Stifling and muzzling citizens' voices by deploying agents of terror, abductions of prominent activists, cheating in elections and refusal to enact electoral returns will mean that the sanctions against ZANU-PF individuals and entitles will remain.  

If they think giving land back to white farmers is the best medicine against sanctions they better read fully the conditions, they were clearly spelt out in those sanctions declarations," said the ZimFirst leader.

Brian Kagoro, a Constitutional lawyer and Pan-Africanist also dismissed government's reallocation of land to the white commercial farmers.

"Sections 71 and 72 of our Constitution are clear about the expropriation of land this shows that black lives don't matter. 4 000 commercial farmers to be paid US$3.5 billion yet they were owning most of the arable land. White commercial farmers were treating our people as slaves yet they were doing much of the job. This reallocation of land and US$3.5 billion payout supersedes the rights of citizens," said Kagoro.

@danielItai_zw

Source - online